By Alessia Proietti

May 9 Council meeting

Red Deer city council to consider public engagement strategy for permanent shelter

May 7, 2022 | 6:13 PM

Red Deer city council will consider public participation and advocacy options for the permanent shelter at their regular meeting on Monday, May 9.

At their April 11 meeting, administration was given a four-week extension to complete a public Engagement Plan for council to review.

Administration says that, at the moment, The City has very little formalized decision-making authority under the current agreement with the province, known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU was meant to establish the purpose of the project, roles, and which integrated services will be included.

READ MORE: Red Deer city council releases confidential information on permanent shelter

“This is a complex project, and we want to ensure our community can influence decisions about shelter in the best possible ways,” says Tara Shand, corporate communications manager. “Engaging citizens for the right reasons, at the right time in the right ways will help us not only ensure their input is considered in the process, but also help us rebuild trust at a time when people have told us the current process is not working for them, and they want us to do things differently.”

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Two options are being presented to council for consideration:

1. The City will proceed with a government-to-government advocacy strategy that calls on the province to consult and engage with the community directly. The City will not conduct any formal public participation until The City has formal authority over the decisions being made relating to land-use, such as through a public hearing process.
2. The City will proceed with public participation on site selection. City council will initiate a public advocacy strategy to represent the views and perspectives of the community on shelter more broadly. Administration says this option facilitates an indirect consultation process where citizens share their input with The City about what and how they would like to be consulted and The City will share it with the province.

Administration says two-way transparent communication will be critical for stakeholders, citizens, and the community to feel informed and understand how they can influence decisions related to a future permanent shelter in Red Deer, regardless of whether those processes are province, or city-led.

“As an organization, we are always working to engage with our community informally. We do this through a variety of means including everything from events to email, social media and on-street conversations. But public participation is about formalizing engagement,” adds Shand. “It is about informing a decision, and when we engage citizens in this process, we make a promise to consider their input in the decision-making process. When it comes to shelter, this is difficult because at this time, we have very little decision-making authority.”

With the goal of transparency, council also approved at the April 11 meeting the release of all reports, communications, and presentations from closed (In Camera) council meetings throughout the project process thus far.

“We know there is support for shelter in our community; we know a shelter is needed,” said Sarah Tittemore, General Manager of Community Services. “How we get there is the unknown right now, but as an organization, we are committed to working with our community, and with the Provincial government to achieve the shared goal of an integrated, purpose-built shelter in Red Deer.”

The permanent shelter is a provincially-funded project aimed to provide services needed by the community’s vulnerable population to support their journey into successful permanent housing.

For more information on shelter services in Red Deer, visit www.reddeer.ca/shelter.

To access the council agenda item report, and view the council meeting live on Monday, May 9, visit https://meeting.reddeer.ca.