Manitoba homelessness adviser to leave job after less than a year service
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WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government’s senior adviser on homelessness is leaving her position after roughly 10 months on the job.
Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud will, as of Dec. 1, be president and CEO of the Collaborative Housing Alliance Real Estate Investment Trust — an investment vehicle aimed at funding new or converted affordable units.
It was set up last year by the Business Council of Manitoba with a $10-million grant from the province.
Blaikie Whitecloud was hired by the NDP government in January, at a salary of $177,000, to lead the government’s effort to end chronic homelessness within seven years.
Part of the effort involved promises to clear encampments and ensure more housing is made available.
Bernadette Smith, the minister for housing, addictions and homelessness, said Blaikie Whitecloud has helped get 100 homes for people who had been living in encampments, and the work will continue.
“Tessa’s leadership is instrumental in bringing partners together and setting our strategy on the right path,” Smith said in a written statement Thursday.
The government has faced some criticism over the number of homeless people in Winnipeg.
Encampments continue to be visible in many parts of the city, and a recent report from End Homelessness Winnipeg, a non-profit housing advocacy group, said it counted a record 2,469 people experiencing homelessness in its latest data-gathering effort last November.
Jeff Bereza, the Opposition Progressive Conservative critic for addictions and homelessness, said the government has a long way to go in getting people into housing.
“I go by the Osborne Street bridge (near the legislature) every day and … the amount of encampments, it just continues to grow at a rapid pace,” he said.
Before being hired by the government, Blaikie Whitecloud was the chief executive officer at Siloam Mission, a charity that serves the unhoused.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2025.