As Temperatures Plummet, Medicine Hat Has No Plan to Open Warming Centres

city of medicine hatyxhhomelessnessemergency shelter

Dec 12

In a move intended to break the logjam, the city struck the "Resilient and Inclusive Community Task Force" in March 2025 to address social disorder and the shelter gap. The task force worked on identifying a location, but its operations were conducted confidentially. This secrecy backfired spectacularly when the public discovered the chosen site. The resulting outcry led The Mustard Seed, the charity poised to operate the facility, to withdraw its application for the necessary zoning change, halting the project entirely.

The sequence has left community advocates and social agencies frustrated. The Owl notes that while the city routinely holds extensive public consultations for amenities like recreation centres, the process for a life-saving shelter has been marked by closed-door decisions that collapse upon public scrutiny.

The consequences of this political and procedural inertia are not abstract; they are measured in minutes of exposure and risk of permanent injury. With a biting wind chill pushing temperatures toward -30°C, the situation escalates from one of discomfort to one of acute physical danger.

This reality frames the city’s inaction in a damning context. Occupational health and safety regulations would not permit workers to remain outdoors for extended periods in such conditions, where frostbite can occur on exposed skin in as little as 10 to 30 minutes. These would be people with proper warm clothing. Public outrage would rightly follow if a pet were left tethered outside in similar cold.

Yet, for Medicine Hat’s unsheltered residents—human beings without a daytime refuge and often without enough warm clothes—this lethal chill is a mandatory condition of their daily existence. They are left to wander, seek brief respite in business doorways, or simply endure as the wind picks up and the risk accelerates. While the city awaits an official weather alert, the human body operates on a much faster, and far less bureaucratic, clock.

For now, as temperatures plummet, Medicine Hat’s most vulnerable residents are left with a stark reality: a promised shelter remains a blueprint, while the emergency response waits for an official alert, leaving people out in the cold.

The Owl has reached out to Public Services for a statement On When They Will activate Warming Centres but received Nothing by publication time.

MEDICINE HAT, AB – With a cold snap gripping Alberta, a critical disparity in emergency response for homeless residents has emerged between major cities and one of the province’s smaller urban centres. While Edmonton proactively opens additional warming shelters during extended deep freezes, Medicine Hat continues to operate without a permanent 24/7 shelter, a situation advocates call a dangerous failure of planning and public process.

The city’s only overnight shelter offers 35 beds but closes each morning, leaving its occupants with no designated, safe place to go during daytime hours. The municipality’s official policy is to activate emergency warming spaces only after Environment Canada issues an Extreme Cold Warning, a higher threshold than the multi-day temperature benchmarks used by other jurisdictions.

This patchwork system exists despite a 3.5-year-long, and so far fruitless, effort to establish a full-time shelter. Multiple attempts have foundered, often succumbing to organized opposition from nearby residents and businesses.

A local advocate Has put out a call for Tents and blankets. If you can help , please contact Geraldine on Facebook.

It is hoped that nobody will receive by-law tickets for illegal camping. Advocates say that nobody is “camping” in this weather. Camping is a recreational activity, these people are just trying to survive.