Sobering centre site selected

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This article was published 07/09/2023 (1102 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The location for the Wheat City’s future sobering centre was finally decided on Tuesday when city council voted unanimously to allow the John Howard Society of Brandon to include the facility as part of its transitional housing project on the North Hill.

Back in March, Brandon City Council approved the sale of a parcel of land on the 300 block of 16th Street North to the society and Westman Youth for Christ for $1 to establish a transitional housing facility at the site.

When the federal government announced $5 million in funding toward the housing project in late May, John Howard Society executive director Ross Robinson said consideration had been given to including a sobering centre in the build, but approval for that aspect was moving more slowly.

Tuesday’s motion passed by council amends the resolution from March to include a sobering centre in the scope of the work and requests that Manitoba Justice approve the John Howard Society receiving the $2 million promised by the provincial government to establish a facility in Brandon subject to land-use applications and community consultations being carried out.

That promise had first been made in July 2021, followed up by an announcement last month that the province would also contribute $1.5 million in annual funding for the operation of a sobering centre.

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) said the co-location of the sobering centre and transitional housing had been suggested by the Canadian Health and Housing Association.

“We still have to go through the public hearing and variance processes and have public input, but this gets us moving forward in the right direction to have a sobering centre in our community,” Desjarlais said.

Speaking to the Sun on Wednesday, Brandon’s director of planning and buildings, Ryan Nickel, said that the approval is only for the construction of the facility but not its operation.

“The John Howard Society are the builders and they would be, if you can think about it, like the landlords,” Nickel said.

“(They) would operate the housing component. They would construct this one large building that would also have a sobering centre and they would have a tenant who would be the operator of the sobering centre.”

When the time comes to determine who will be in charge of day-to-day operations, the city will have to issue a request for proposals to find interested parties.

It had always been the hope to co-locate the facilities, Nickel said, but progress on the sobering centre wasn’t made until the city received confirmation the province would provide ongoing annual funding to operate it.

When the federal funds were announced, the transitional housing project was given an 18-month timeline to complete construction. According to Nickel, the intent is for the sobering centre to be complete within that same period.

“This is something that the city through our different social providers have identified — even kind of Prairie Mountain Health and including the police — as a real community need,” Nickel said.

“This has been ongoing with lots of good work put in through many community partners to move this along.”

The Sun was unable to reach Robinson for comment on Wednesday.

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