'Cultural safety' at heart of design for Yellowknife permanent shelter
CBC
Three meals a day, showers, beds, space for smudging and beading, and warm wood panelling are among the design plans for Yellowknife's soon-to-be permanent shelter.
In a virtual meeting on Tuesday, the territorial government's Department of Health and Social Services (HSS) unveiled its plans for the shelter — a facility slated to combine features of the sobering centre and day shelter.
Perry Heath, director of infrastructure planning for HSS, said that in addition to services, the design team took care to consider "cultural safety."
Heath said that includes a community hall zone as a gathering space dedicated to any kind of cultural activity the shelter clients choose.
"Anybody who has experience in a small community outside of Yellowknife knows that in many instances the community hall is the centre of activity in that community and this is intended to be the same thing," he said.
Heath said cultural safety also means local art, hallways of different shapes and sizes to avoid long narrow passages, and an interior of warm tones and natural materials.
A lot on 51st Street is the location under consideration, though Heath said the department considered two other downtown lots.
One is the site of the current temporary shelter. That location was nixed largely because of permafrost-rich soil making the site vulnerable to changing ground conditions.
The other is the former YK Motors site on 49th Avenue. Heath said that site is subject to an environmental investigation and that the department couldn't build on the land until that's resolved.
Heath said that noise and impact on nearby business were identified as some of the biggest concerns in the department's consultation over the last year and a half.
Klaus Shoenne, owner of Yellowknife True Value Hardware on 51st Street, has been one of the most vocal with his concerns.
"I have no objection to a shelter for the homeless, for the intoxicated so they don't freeze, but this location on 51st is not the location," Schoenne said.
He said he has a petition with nearly 900 signatures from people who agree.
Schoenne said he's worried about violence from shelter clients, pointing to fits of violence around the city's current sobering centre.
Canada is preparing for U.S. President Donald Trump to hit the country with potentially devastating tariffs on Tuesday, but the federal government and the premiers say they are in the dark about what will actually materialize and how high those promised levies will be.
Former P.E.I. Premier Dennis King has been appointed as Canada's new ambassador to Ireland, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday in a news release.
Oxford and Elgin counties have the highest number of measles cases in the country, the province's public health agency says, as local medical officials warn of more possible exposures to the deadly virus.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford will take questions from media Monday for the first time since his Progressive Conservatives won their third-straight majority in a snap election last week.
Newfoundland and Labrador is staring down federal, provincial, and municipal elections in the next eight months, but for one new Canadian the opportunity to vote is something she's not taking for granted.
Even with a dirt trench running down the hallway, and exposed wires and pipes hanging from the ceiling, it still kind of looks like an elementary school.
Some of the most affordable rental housing in Nova Scotia is rapidly becoming less so, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data analyzed by CBC News.
A two-time federal Conservative candidate in Miramichi says he doesn't think current party MP Jake Stewart can win again in a federal election that is expected to start within weeks.
Quebec municipalities and human rights groups are voicing concerns about proposed legislation that would require newcomers to abide by a set of common values.
Amazon and Walmart Canada have so far ignored the NDP government's requests to restrict the online sale of machetes to Manitobans, the province says.
Saskatoon city council is seeking money to crack down on unlicensed short-term rentals in the city, like those on AirBnB and VRBO, amid an active moratorium on licensing certain new short-term rentals.
When Kwaku Ayisi lost a friend who hadn't even reached 40 to breast cancer, it inspired him to look at the barriers Black women face in Saskatchewan's breast-health system.
A northern Alberta town is losing its only family doctor clinic and officials are trying to find solutions before the doors close for good at the end of May.