THUNDER BAY — While timelines are still tight, the city appears to have a bit of wiggle room as to when the construction of its temporary shelter village starts.
That’s according to city manager John Collin, who said the requirement to start work in July — or risk losing $2.8 million in provincial funding — is now a bit more flexible.
City staff have previously-stated that construction needed to start within 120 days of the funding agreement being signed by the Thunder Bay District Social Services Board.
“There was that (condition), but we have been given latitude on that,” he told reporters at a Chamber of Commerce event on Thursday.
“I want to be clear: they've given us some latitude on the start date — that's not a firm line in the sand,” Collin said.
“The point is, the funder — the province in this case — is not that concerned about when it starts because they trust us,” he continued. “We're a municipality, so they're less concerned about when it starts, so they're going to give us a little bit of latitude there.”
“They’re more concerned about when we can finish the project.”
The city secured the $2.8 million in conditional funding from the province to build the temporary shelter village to house up to 100 people experiencing homelessness. Another condition of the funding — that the construction be completed and people start to move in — by December 31 is still in effect, but “there’s the possibility of discussions with the province,” Collin said.
“We're having those discussions to see if we can buy ourselves a bit more time, but right now the date that we have committed to — that they have committed to for the funding — is 31 December.”
If that end-of-year deadline continues to hold, Collin said, despite the 120-day window now being relaxed, it still can’t be by much.
“So, when you back that off, we are literally running out of time to get it done to satisfy that timeline.”
City council still has to approve a site for the village to be built after multiple attempts to decide on a site have failed or been reversed — the latest, the Kam River Heritage Park, was struck down after it was determined to be too expensive to implement certain safety measures to “satisfy external partners,” according to a memo to council on June 20 from Coun. Kasey Etreni.
The shelter village is part of the city’s 10-part human rights-based community action plan to respond to homeless encampments, endorsed by council in 2024.
Council now has to choose another site for the shelter village; at its June 23 meeting it directed city administration to review alternate locations for it, including locations council previously rejected, like the Miles Street East and Cumberland Street North sites.
A Lakehead Region Conservation Authority property on Fort William Road, however, is off the table, as the authority has subsequently revoked its support, Collin told council.
City council’s next meeting is on July 14.
An existing request for proposal for a contractor to build the shelter village was, as of Thursday, set to close on July 3, although Collin said that deadline can also be extended — and has been once already.
“We're working through all of that, now that we have support to explore another site,” Collin said on Thursday. “We'll make it clear to the public in the coming days to a week or so what the timeline plan is moving forward.”
“Today, there is nothing I can divulge to the public, because we haven't landed on the final version.”
