Hopes renewed for long-promised sobering centre in Thompson as MKO set to take over city's shelter

There are hopes a long-promised sobering centre in northern Manitoba will finally become a reality, with an Indigenous advocacy organization set to take over the operations of the shelter that will host the facility.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak is scheduled to take over the operations of the 45-bed shelter in Thompson, Man., later this year, and will be tasked with opening up the first designated sobering centre in the city.

"I'm very hopeful. I'm very excited," said Kelvin Lynxleg, executive director of MKO, a non-profit advocacy organization that represents more than two dozen First Nations in northern Manitoba.

"I'm not walking in with rose-coloured glasses. I know that there's issues."

Each year, over 1,000 people are detained by RCMP in Thompson — a city of just over 13,000 people about 650 kilometres north of Winnipeg — under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act, which allows police to detain someone whose intoxication makes them a danger to themselves or others. 

A CBC investigation into deaths in police custody found dozens of instances across the country where people died in holding cells after being arrested for intoxication. 

In many of those cases, steps meant to keep people safe were missed. 

A 2015 inquest into the death of Jeffrey Ray Mallet, who died in 2008 after being taken into custody for being drunk, called for a sobering centre in Thompson.

In 2020, the provincial government pledged $2.8 million for a sobering facility in the city, aiming to create a safe place for people to sober up for the night by late 2021.

That never materialized.

Over 20 organizations in Thompson, including Manitoba Justice, the Canadian Mental Health Association and RCMP were involved in the project.

However, internal debate sprung up about how the facility would look. Lynxleg says some objected to the idea of a sobering facility with rooms where people would be locked inside, similar to Winnipeg's Main Street Project. 

"I understand where they're coming from," Lynxleg said. "We don't want to use it like a jail cell."

Some organizations — she wouldn't name which — felt locking people up isn't conducive to healing or reconciliation, said Lynxleg. She hopes MKO's involvement will change that impression.