The province hopes to turn the old liquor store into a Complex Needs Emergency Shelter. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Complex decision

Council moves to send complex needs shelter decision to next council meeting for decision

Aug 12, 2025 | 3:07 PM

It appears that Prince Albert city council is ready to make a final decision on a land use change that will allow the province to operated Complex Needs Emergency Shelter (CNES) in the downtown.

With a 7-2 vote in favour at Monday’s executive committee meeting, council sent the development permit and connected re-zoning for decision to the next regular meeting.

“We can’t just keep on fearing the unknown and just keep on push and push and push and asking questions that can’t be answered. This has to go to vote and move forward to the next council meeting and let’s get on with it,” Coun. Stephen Ring said.

He said he is in 100 per cent support of the facility. He was joined in that support by fellow councillors Troy Parenteau, Blake Edwards, Darren Solomon and Dawn Kilmer along with Mayor Bill Powalinsky. Daniel Brown and Bryce Laewetz opposed the motion.

Parenteau said he thought council was getting bogged down on details when the problems with mental health and addictions are increasingly more evident on the city’s streets.

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“What I’m seeing on our streets is I’m seeing a lot of social issues and I’m seeing a solution here on the screen and I see us getting stuck in the weeds. I support this 100 per cent. I think we need some changes in our community and I think this is a step in the right direction,” he said.

There has been some public opposition to the CNES, mostly from Midtown residents who will have the facility in their ward.

Prince Albert will have the third such facility in Saskatchewan as both Regina and Saskatoon have had them operational for a year.

Using the same portion of the law that allows police to hold members of the public who are ‘drunk or disorderly’ in cells for up to 24-hours, the same people would now be diverted to the CNES where they can be held for the same time limit.

Unlike the cells, people housed in the CNES will have access to a nurse and mental health counsellors who will work to refer them to longer term services once they are released.

How they will be released was the topic of some discussion at Monday’s meeting as some councillors wanted firm commitments that there would be no loitering around the building and that it would not lead to increased vagrancy in Midtown.

Mayor Powalinsky said he spoke to the Saskatoon city councillor that has a CNES in their ward and was told that the businesses neighbouring it don’t notice that it exists.

“I know that in discussions with the Saskatoon councillor whose ward the shelter is in, they’re very, very happy with the way the operation has been going. I know that it’s been a contentious issue,” Powalinsky said.

The province has also provided the city with an operational letter of intent, which will be attached to the development permit.

Council will also add a three year time frame to review the permit and will ask if patients are being released into the city without going to another place of care or to stay with a relative that they can choose the location.

The letter of intent from the province:

Documents that detail what the province plans to do with the complex needs facility. Some of the questions have already been answered. (PA council agenda/

(submitted photo)

(submitted photo)

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Documents that detail what the province plans to do with the complex needs facility. Some of the questions have already been answered. (PA council agenda/Aug. 11/25)

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social