The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Thompson City Council recently approved the use of three outdoor rink shelter facilities to temporarily house the homeless, if necessary, on extremely cold nights. Council defines 'extreme cold' as weather that is -35 C, including the wind chill, or colder. The three facilities will be made available on evenings that fall in to the extreme cold weather parameters, in the event that Thompson's homeless shelter does not have enough room. Council's resolution stands solely in regards to the physical structures at the outdoor rinks, and doesn't speak to staffing. 'At this time the city is not looking at staffing, that's under discussion with the agencies involved,' said Coun. Dennis Fenske. 'At this time we're not proposing providing staffing, it's just providing facilities.' All three buildings are heated and can house between 10 and 20 people at a time; discussion is still ongoing as to what types of bedding will be provided, be mats or cots. Evening Thompson's cold weather policy only applies during the evening, and even if extremely cold temperatures are sustained during daytime hours, the facilities would not be available until the evening. 'It is an emergency shelter at night,' said Fenske. 'Other agencies or other issues will be dealt with during the day, but it's an evening shelter.' City manager Gary Ceppetelli shed light on what the main rationale of the resolution was. 'This resolution really has council approving the concept of the physical location and then taking that back to the public safety committee to develop the logistical aspects and parameters such as hours of operation,' said Ceppetelli. Mayor Tim Johnston also weighed in on the resolution before council and spoke favourably about the idea. 'Those buildings are operated by the city 24/7,' he said. 'Outside of the hours that they're used for the rinks, we still heat them and they sit empty. The concept here is, that's an asset that doesn't cost the city an awful lot to contribute.' Johnston also noted that this wasn't an issue of organizations competing for use of the buildings, but rather maximizing the efficiency of the structures that are already in place. There is still a fair amount of work to be done on the extreme cold weather policy, but in Johnston's opinion, with the city contributing assets, other organizations will step forward and contribute in their own ways. _ Matt Durnan, Thompson Citizen
