Red Deer mayor speaks after small rally in support of warming space

“I don’t think you can print my level of frustration,” says Shining Mountains’ executive director, Raye St. Denys, who’s been at the forefront of the battle.

Her agency was pegged to lead the 50-person warming space initiative back in mid-December, when council approved $75,000 towards it. Another $21,150 was approved for Turning Point to provide support, but they announced Monday they’re dropping out.

“There was a lady [here today] and her son lives on the street. He has severe frostbite on one foot. An administrative screw-up on the part of a previous council should not be able to derail something that is set up to save people — to keep them alive,” she told media following a brief ceremony and speech.

“This is an emergency, so I’ll be very blunt: if it were privileged white people with deep pockets, it would be an emergency if they were out in the cold with nowhere to go. The only reason it’s happening to people dealing with poverty and homelessness is because they don’t have that kind of power. Our mayor and city manager have worked really hard to speed this along as much as they can, but apparently there are still administrative things that have to be done. Well, it’s just not okay.”

Raye St. Denys, ED at Shining Mountains Living Community Services, speaks at a small rally outside Red Deer City Hall on Jan. 19, 2026. (Image Credit: rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

—

rdnewsNOW caught up with Mayor Cindy Jefferies following the rally.

The attention of Jefferies was caught once singing began outside and down from her office window, she shared. She wasn’t aware the event was scheduled.

“I share in their frustration. I understand their desire to get housing or shelter in place. We need that, but sometimes legislation and regulations get in our way,” Jefferies acknowledged.

The mayor stated that by Wednesday, the city will likely have come to a decision on potentially activating the Emergency Operations Committee — similar to during periods of severe weather, or as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She says doing so would allow the city to act quicker.

“Even if all of our shelter spaces are full, we know we have hundreds of people in our community who will not have shelter. It’s an ongoing concern. We’re looking at ways to open other spaces on a temporary basis to allow nighttime shelter to happen.”

She described it further as “job one.”

Jefferies also said she tried to call an emergency meeting of council, but notifications for surrounding property owners was deemed a necessary step.

Asked what her message would be to those experiencing homelessness, and facing winter’s chokehold the most, she says they’ve been top of mind.

“I was thinking about our homeless population yesterday as I was driving home, and it’s not a good situation. I would say we’ve struggled to respond in a way that meets the need,” she admitted.

“Some of that [was because] we’ve placed our hopes in our permanent location for shelter over the past few years, and that will come, but it’s not going to solve all our problems. In the meantime, what will our community response be? There’s lots of work to be done, and we need to get to this work quickly.”

As for Turning Point, their interim executive director, Carolyn Corrigal, says the “numerous delays and roadblocks” that have had to be jumped through to get the warming space to the finish line did play a key role in their decision to remove themselves from the equation.

“It’s unfortunate because as it stands, we have our empty drop-in space that was defunded as of November 1, and it would have [also] worked perfectly well for a winter support space,” Corrigal shared Monday.

An Indigenous man sings to start a small rally outside Red Deer City Hall on Jan. 19, 2026. (Image Credit: rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

Corrigal and Turning Point actually applied for money from the city’s Reaching Home grant this past fall, but were denied. Corrigal says they weren’t given a reason, but also noted they made clear it would be strictly to provide a warm space, as opposed to the inevitably controversial distribution of drug supply-related items.

“When this opportunity came up to collaborate on a different warming space, we thought it would be the next best thing,” says Corrigal.

“I understand there are a lot of contributing factors as to why we weren’t looking at this sooner in the year, but reality is the availability of funds was only announced in December. Had we all started discussing this in the fall or summer, like I had proposed to the city, perhaps we would not be looking at a start date in the end of January.”

Mayor Jefferies says changes with how the province allocates funds to community-based organizations played a part in things lingering into December.

The city said Monday it is aware of Turning Point’s decision to not proceed, and is reviewing next steps.

Programs listed here under ‘Homelessness Support Services’ are the ones which receive funding through Reaching Home.

—

READ MORE

by Josh Hall | @Vancan19

Red Deer mayor speaks after small rally in support of warming space

What's Trending