Prince Albert city council approved more federal funding Monday to continue the city’s encampment response strategy, with administration pointing to positive early results while also acknowledging persistent gaps in evening response and repeat trouble spots across the community.
Council voted to approve a $208,095.10 grant agreement between the city and Riverbank Development Corporation to allow the Community Safety and Well-Being division to continue coordinating the encampment response plan through 2026-27.
The funding supports a partnership-based approach involving the city, Prince Albert Metis Women’s Association, Prince Albert Police Service, and Prince Albert Fire Department, along with continued operation of the mobile Hygiene Hub and ongoing data collection through the federal Homelessness Information System.
Administration framed the renewed agreement as a response to a growing and more visible challenge in Prince Albert. The report says the city saw higher numbers in the 2025 Point-In-Time Count and argued that continued coordination, outreach and public health measures are needed as encampments reappear through spring and summer.
Coun. Blake Edwards said he supported the motion, but asked how the strategy is dealing with smaller, highly visible encampments and fires near businesses, especially in the evening.
“How are we dealing with that in this strategy?” Edwards asked, referring to fires, defecation, and other disorder near businesses. “It’s mostly in the evening where this occurs.”
Community Safety and Well-Being manager Anna Dinsdale said the strategy is meant to respond across the spectrum of encampments, from larger hidden sites to smaller, more visible problem areas downtown and along the riverbank.
She said one of the most practical tools under the strategy is the Hygiene Hub, which she said helped reduce public defecation and improve hygiene access last year. The hub is expected to reopen once weather conditions improve.
“A really good example for you, when you’re talking about defecating in public, is a hygiene hub. (It) sits under this strategy,” Dinsdale said. “We know that that had an impact last year. It hasn’t been operational at the moment because of the weather. As soon as the weather improves, that will be operational again.”
Dinsdale said added outreach capacity through Prince Albert Metis Women’s Association and additional bylaw support have also helped the city balance disruption in highly visible locations while trying to deter larger encampments elsewhere.
She said the city is also preparing to deal with at least one larger hidden encampment with help from fire department drone assessments and cross-department planning.
Still, Dinsdale acknowledged the city’s response has limits, particularly after hours.
“The reality is that the partners that we’re working with include Prince Albert Police service, Prince Albert Metis Women’s Association, who do work into the evening to an extent, and we also now have the mobile complex needs team, who are seeing some success in the work they’re doing,” she said. “But we also know that that is our major gap as a community, is kind of those systems in the evening to intervene and be able to disrupt and move people on.”
That concern echoed an earlier discussion at city hall. In March, councillors raised complaints about littering, defecation and fires around the city’s warm-up shelter, concerns that resurfaced again Monday during debate over the encampment strategy.
Coun. Darren Solomon asked whether the Hygiene Hub is leading to longer-term changes or mostly shorter-term relief. Dinsdale said the early outcomes have been positive. including feedback about reduced spread of infectious disease and less public defecation, but said the hub only operated for about three and a half months last year.
She added that the strategy itself is mainly a response tool, not a full solution to homelessness.
“The encampment strategy, in and of itself, is not going to help us in the long term, reduce homelessness, necessarily,” Dinsdale said.
She said longer-term progress will depend on connecting people to services and building a broader support system, including the mobile complex needs team and the future complex needs facility.
Mayor Bill Powalinsky noted before the vote that the funding comes through a federal grant rather than directly from city coffers.
“in turn, it’s leverage of funds and partnerships and really initiated by our community safety well-being unit, which is the envy of Saskatchewan.” Mayor Powalinsky said, before council moved directly to a vote.
The motion carried, allowing the city to continue its coordinated encampment response for another year as spring activity begins to rise.
