‘Insanity’: Frustrated councillors approve last minute interim warming shelter downtown

WATCH: Less than a week after approving a winter drop-in centre, city council was back to look at another one Wednesday.

One week after approving a winter drop-in centre, Saskatoon city councillors approved a second interim location, despite some vocal frustration.

“I can’t help but feel completely dismayed about this situation,” Ward 3 Coun. Robert Pearce said.

“The way we do this is the definition of insanity. We keep doing the same thing every year and expect a different result.”

More than half of council gathered at City Hall Wednesday for a special meeting to approve 50 23rd Street East, the former STC downtown bus depot, as a temporary drop-in warm up centre.

Last Wednesday, council approved 325 Avenue C South, right next to the Salvation Army, as a warm-up location to operate until March 31, 2026.

Councillors were told that location wouldn’t be ready for at least a month. St. Mary’s Church, which operates an overnight warm-up centre, only accepts men.

Councillors left last week thinking church organizations and other groups could help fill the gap until the Avenue C location was operational, but those talks collapsed, and administration was forced to call a special meeting.

“Can you just expand on how this falls to us to figure out how to do this, at the last minute, when that was exactly what we said we would not do,” Mayor Cynthia Block asked during the meeting.

“We had two options that we were fairly confident would go through,” said Celene Anger, the city’s general manager of community services.

“The organization just made a decision that they would not go forward with the plan … and it was a tough decision for them. The second one was a shifting of services through the province, and they were not able to make it work.”

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Throughout the meeting, councillors voiced their frustrations in once again talking about shelter space in the fall instead of earlier in the year.

“Clearly our methodology on working on this is not meeting the need,” Pearce said.

“I have a gun to my head. If I vote against it, I’m the heartless person who wants women to die. If I vote for it, I’m fulfilling this insanity that we keep doing every year.”

Ward 9 Coun. Bev Dubois echoed Pearce’s frustration at how the process played out and why that building was chosen.

Frank Long, the director of the city’s land division, said they looked for a suitable space across the city, and this was their only choice.

“It is last minute, but it is where we are,” he said.

Dubois also voiced concern with contractors working on the building to get the site ready hours before the meeting began.

“It’s a done deal as far as I’m concerned. The work has started; the contract is signed. I mean, I feel like I don’t even need to be here in this room. This is a waste of my time being in a special council meeting for this one,” she said.

Administration budgeted $50,000 to $75,000 in spending to get the building ready for up to eight weeks of use. This includes water service, moving in a washroom trailer outside the building and erecting adequate fencing.

Administration couldn’t commit to staying within its outlined budget, so council voted to put a hard cap of $75,000. Any spending beyond that requires council approval.

The building is expected to open on Friday.