Heading into Monday’s council meeting I incorrectly assumed Prince Albert’s elected representatives would shine up their kicking cleats and boot the Special Care Facility development permanent application as far down the road as politically possible.
I’m glad to say I was wrong.
After a lengthy debate, council approved the application by a 7-2 vote. The decision means the provincial government can establish Saskatchewan’s third Complex Needs Emergency Shelter (CNES), a 10-15 bed facility for “individuals who are intoxicated and exhibiting behavior that presents a danger to themselves and a danger or disturbance to the public.” To be blunt, it’s a facility for people who require short-term stabilization or medical support, but are too dangerous to be dropped off at a regular clinic, detox, or hospital.
It’s important to note, this is not a walk-in shelter open to the general public. If you end up in the CNES, it’s because the police brought you there.
As with the homeless shelter debate before, I don’t know of a single resident who thinks Prince Albert doesn’t need a CNES. The benefits are readily apparent, and the fact that Saskatchewan’s government set aside $6 million to expand CNES’ into new communities in the last provincial budget has to help.
Instead, council debates focused largely on location and consultation, with the dissenters asking for a site further away from downtown or more community consultation before making a decision. While I sympathize with both points of view, city council made the correct call in approving the application Monday night.
Obviously, elected officials should be sensitive to their constituents’ concerns. They are representatives of their wards, not feudal lords ruling from castle throne rooms. Consultation ensures residents can voice those concerns, allowing council to make informed decisions. However, as any Exhibition attendee who gorged themselves on spudnuts can tell you, sometimes there really is too much of a good thing.
City administrators—at council’s request—put together an exceptional round of well-attended consultation meetings during discussions for a new 24-hour emergency homeless shelter. While the consultation was thorough, the process took so long the shelter service provider, YWCA, eventually walked away from the project, opting instead to open a new low-barrier shelter for women in the lower level of Our House.
Although the Prince Albert Grand Council stepped forward to operate the shelter, the experience shows that ‘time’ a finite resource. There wasn’t a shelter location everyone in Prince Albert could agree on, and there won’t be one with the CNES. No amount of consultation will change that.
Furthermore, too much consultation bogs down government. When we go to the polls, we aren’t just electing councillors, mayors, MLAs, or MPs based on their policies or character. We’re also electing them based on their judgement.
If a candidate has good judgement, we should let them make tough decisions without round after round of consultation. If we don’t like those decisions, we can vote them out of office.
Residents should feel free to communicate how they feel to their representatives, but when we host consultation meeting after consultation meeting on every controversial issue we aren’t providing feedback, we’re micro-managing them. If that’s what we want, we should curtail council’s power and use the type of direct democracy you see only in Switzerland, where residents vote roughly four times a year and federal, canton, and municipal votes are often held simultaneously.
As for the CNES location, well, it’s just down the street from the Daily Herald office. I don’t believe the CNES will make this area of the city more dangerous, but if it does, I’ll be paying the price more than most people. Readers who dislike my position on consultation can at least take some small solace in that fact. I won’t hold it against them.
Jason Kerr is the editor of the Prince Albert Daily Herald
