SaskatoonSaskatoon’s mayor and city councillors are expressing frustration about needing to make a last-minute decision to turn the city’s former bus depot into a temporary warming centre.Emergency meeting held Wednesday to approve temporary warming shelterHalyna Mihalik · CBC News · Posted: Nov 05, 2025 10:53 AM EST | Last Updated: 11 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.City council approved a warming centre to help people facing homelessness last week, but found themselves back at the drawing board Wednesday as that space needs renovations that will take four weeks. (Matt Garand/CBC)Saskatoon’s mayor and city councillors are expressing frustration about needing to make a last-minute decision to turn the city’s former bus depot into a temporary warming centre.“I’m very concerned about how we’re looking at locations,” Ward 3 Coun. Robert Pearce said at an emergency council meeting held Wednesday.“I’m getting tired of meetings in November deciding cold weather locations.”Ultimately, council voted to make the former downtown Saskatchewan Transportation Company bus depot a temporary drop-in warming centre, located at 50 23rd Street E.The decision comes after last week’s council meeting, where council approved a different location for the warming centre — a former restaurant in the Riversdale neighbourhood, located at 325 Avenue C S. — that would operate until the end of March.However, councillors learned the space on Avenue C wouldn’t be operational for at least four weeks, as renovations need to be completed first. Saskatoon city council voted on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, to purchase this former restaurant at 325 Avenue C S. to convert it to a winter warming centre. (Phil Tank/CBC)“The province has worked really hard to find that spot but they were, at the last minute, unable to secure the format or the facility that they had planned,” Mayor Cynthia Block told host Sam Maciag on CBC Radio’s Blue Sky on Thursday.“So that put us in a very awkward spot yesterday.”A manager for the city said they tried finding other options, but the former bus depot ended up being the only space available.“There are not a lot of options. No one necessarily wants to provide their facility for a use such as this,” the city’s general manager of community services, Celene Anger, said at Wednesday’s council meeting.“Our intention is to get to a more stable place so we’re not doing this every year, but unfortunately it’s just not where we’re at.”The hour-long emergency meeting on Wednesday had some tense moments.“This is deeply frustrating,” Block said at the meeting.“We were assured at the end of last week that the gap would be filled and then suddenly it’s not.”Pearce agreed, referencing the high need for shelter spaces for women in the city. The new warming space will be open to men and women, and they will have separate sleeping areas overnight. “I have a gun to my head. If I vote against it, I’m the heartless person who wants women to die,” Pearce said. The director of the city’s land division, Frank Long, said he understood where councillors were coming from, but that this was the only option available.“Having been involved in some of the search, it’s tireless and a lot of effort has gone into this,” Long said.“We’ve looked all over in the city. It’s last minute, but it’s where we’re at.”There is $50,000 to $75,000 allocated to get the space ready to be used as the temporary warming centre. Anything spent over that amount would need to be approved by council first. The space currently has nothing in it, except for two half-operational washrooms.The money allocated would go towards moving in a temporary washroom trailer, putting fencing up and hooking up water.The space is expected to be operating by Friday.
Saskatoon council forced to make deeply frustrating last-minute shelter decision
