In a reversal of its decision at general committee the previous week, Peterborough city council has voted against deferring a winter shelter response plan until August, and also voted in favour of pre-committing funding for a six-month response plan.
At its regular meeting on Monday night (June 1), councillors voted against Mayor Jeff Leal’s motion to defer a report from community services commissioner Sheldon Laidman recommending options for a planned seasonal winter shelter model for people experiencing homelessness in winter 2026-27, instead of the temporary temperature-based shelter response used this past winter.
Laidman’s report presented two options for a planned overnight shelter model, both of which would provide at least 30 additional beds nightly using the former fire station at 161 Carnegie Avenue, where the city operated an emergency temperature-based shelter response for up to 40 people per night over 10 days during the winter of 2025-26.
Option A would operate for three months from January through March and would cost about $303,000 annually, plus $20,000 in startup costs, while Option B would run for six months from November through April at an annual operating cost of about $576,600, plus $20,000 in startup costs.
Two councillors changed their general committee votes in favour of a deferral
Last Monday, general committee had voted 6-4 in favour of the mayor’s motion, which had originally proposed deferring the report until 2027 budget deliberations but was later amended to defer the report until August, asking staff to come back to council then with possible alternate locations for the shelter.
At that meeting, Mayor Leal and councillors Dave Haacke, Andrew Beamer, Lesley Parnell, Kevin Duguay, and Gary Baldwin voted in favour of the deferral and councillors Don Vassiliadis, Joy Lachica, Matt Crowley, and Keith Riel voted against. Councillor Alex Bierk didn’t vote as he was absent from the meeting.
At the June 1 regular council meeting, councillors Vassiliadis, Lachica, Crowley, and Riel once again voted against the deferral, with councillor Bierk also voting against it, and councillors Parnell and Baldwin changed their vote from the previous week, defeating the mayor’s motion 5-6.
Councillor Baldwin then proposed a motion to pre-commit the necessary funds for a six-month winter shelter response plan, which was essentially the same as Option B in Laidman’s report. Council voted 9-2 in favour of the motion, with only councillors Dave Haacke and Andrew Beamer — the two councillors for Northcrest Ward where the former fire station is located — voting against.
Public delegations speak against and in favour of the plan
The meeting began with registered delegations, including three members of the public who spoke to the winter shelter response plan.
One of the delegates, who addressed council over the phone, said he had had concerns about the proposed Carnegie Avenue location, including accessible washrooms, and the ability of One City Peterborough to run the shelter in addition to Trinity Community Centre.
In responding to his concerns, councillor Bierk revealed that Brock Mission would be operating the shelter, adding that washrooms would be accessible at the Carnegie Avenue location.
Delegate Margie Sumadh, a Town Ward resident, first apologized to security staff for her disruption at general committee the previous week, where she approached the council horseshoe while shouting at councillors, before speaking against deferring a winter shelter response plan.
“We must learn from the lessons of last year,” she said. “Let’s support staffed, planned response. Let’s do better, and not wait for life-threatening temperatures to force a crisis-mode response … This is action for community safety that must not be delayed.”
Another member of the public, Town Ward resident Rob Hailman, had some harsh words for council. He began by saying that he had been in the process of preparing a longer delegation, “but I questioned as I was preparing it whether the body I find myself before is worthy of the effort,” before reading an excerpt from German philosopher Friedrich Engels’ 1845 book The Condition of the Working Class in England, which equates systemic neglect and starvation to “social murder.”
“While the forms of social murder have changed in 180 years, murder it remains and governments at all levels are its perpetrators,” Hailman said. “Housing and homelessness is one area of which this is brought into sharp relief. In Peterborough, we are once again faced with evidence that the majority of our council are wilful murderers and the remainder are collaborators.”
Northcrest Ward resident Mary Ellen Myers spoke against the Carnegie Avenue location for a winter shelter, stating that the location was not well used by homeless people last winter and calling it a “failed project.”
She said the location was close to the Riverview Park and Zoo, used by families, and to two condominium developments whose residents are primarily seniors, with many living alone.
She noted the location’s distance from services available in downtown Peterborough, mentioning the “exorbitant cost to taxpayers” for a taxi service rather than requiring people to use nearby public transit. She said that the proposal would provide “free accommodation, snow removal, cleaning service, internet.”
“People should do some work for all the services provided to them … this should not be free,” she said. “A nominal fee should apply.”
She added that most have “a publicly funded source of income … and should be encouraged to budget that money, or find work to generate some extra income so they can make a contribution to the services we’re providing.”
She then said the location should be closer to the downtown, mentioning the Murray Street Baptist Church and the former Kawartha Gymnastics site currently being used for storage of public works equipment.
At the conclusion of her remarks, other Northcrest Ward residents in the public gallery began clapping, leading Mayor Leal to admonish them.
In a rhetorical question, councillor Parnell asked Myers if she was aware that she and councillor Baldwin and possibly other councillors had revisited other possible locations for the shelter in the past week.
Councillors debate Carnegie Avenue location for shelter
When debating the motion, councillor Haacke referred to a total of $11 million of provincial and municipal funding being spent on homelessness in Peterborough, and not wanting to spend more money until the source causes of homelessness are addressed, suggesting that upper levels of government should instead be investing in a building project for the treatment of mental illness and addiction.
Several councillors appeared to be defensive of the public reaction to their vote supporting the deferral at general committee, including councillor Baldwin, who referred to disparaging comments he read on social media over the past week, such as “The old six need to go,” “We have to have a complete change of city council,” and “Let’s get rid of Leal and his gang.”
Baldwin said he has always supported a winter response program, noting his vote at general committee supporting the deferral was only so staff could take the time to find a more appropriate location. He wondered if staff had looked at a General Electric property, the Shoppers Drug Mart property on George Street, or the space at St. Andrew’s Church where Redpath Wellness Centre used to be located.
Baldwin said he had prepared a motion if the general committee decision to defer is reconsidered, but questioned the transportation costs required to use the Carnegie Avenue location.
For his part, councillor Riel spoke against the deferral, noting that the city cannot evict people from encampments unless the city provides them with shelter beds. He said that it costs $17,000 a day to treat a homeless person at Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
Riel said he understood why Northcrest Ward residents don’t want a shelter in their neighbourhood, but noted it was a city-owned building that can offer shelter “when necessary,” before sharing an anecdote that a young couple in their early twenties who had both lost their jobs and were living in their car showed up at the Carnegie Avenue shelter last winter.
‘This is the wrong location and I will not be supporting a shelter at the former fire hall’
In his remarks, councillor Beamer — who is running for re-election in Northcrest Ward — noted the number of Northcrest Ward residents in the public gallery and overflow room and thanked them directly. He said he supported a winter response plan, but not at the Carnegie Avenue location.
He reiterated his comments from the general committee meeting that temporary shelters become permanent shelters, and added that shelters should not be in residential neighbourhoods because of increased crime and garbage and the impact on property values. He also criticized the cost of the shelter, including transportation costs because of its distance from downtown.
“I support a winter shelter response, but this is the wrong location and I will not be supporting a shelter at the former fire hall,” Beamer said.
After Beamer completed his remarks, Northcrest Ward residents in the public gallery began clapping, leading Mayor Leal to admonish them once again.
Speaking against the deferral, councillor Crowley said the municipalities are being forced by upper levels of government to deal with an issue that municipalities cannot resolve.
“Municipalities seem to be the foster parents for someone else’s children,” he said.
Councillor Bierk also spoke against the deferral, asking councillors if they have a better idea than city staff for a suitable location, they should propose it.
“This is not some luxurious thing we’re proposing on the back of the hard-working taxpayer — this is a necessity,” he said, adding that the winter shelter is the “bare minimum.”
He said some of the alternate locations being proposed were not realistic, claiming it would take four months just to clear out the former Shoppers Drug Mart property and that the St. Andrew’s Church location could only support maybe 10 beds “in a Frankenstein way.”
Bierk also noted the two demographics of homelessness people that have increased significantly include first-time shelter users as well as seniors. He said that, if the decision to proceed with a winter response plan is deferred for too long a time, there will be no winter response plan at all.
“We need to act now,” he said, adding that staff could look at transportation costs as well as the concerns of Northcrest Ward residents before the shelter is operational.
Councillor Duguay began his remarks by saying there have been “unacceptable” attacks on his family on social media with comments that “were not factual and unfair.” He said his support for the deferral was to allow staff to consider alternate options for the location, before noting that Carnegie Avenue may be the only option.
Parnell on alternate locations: ‘They were all a solid no’
For her part, councillor Parnell said she “reluctantly supported the deferral” at general committee, mainly because of the location. She said she immediately began looking at new potential alternate locations and revisited past locations previously considered.
“They were all a solid no,” she said, noting that some of the locations are not up to code and would require significant costs to bring them up to code. “We just simply do not have an ideal location for another shelter. It doesn’t exist in any ward.”
She said it was “untrue and unfair” for people to criticize her for doing nothing, and added that she personally spends “significant time” volunteering for Brock Mission and Cameron House.
Mentioning “the cat is out of the bag” with respect to councillor Bierk’s comment during public delegations that Brock Mission is interested in operating the winter shelter, Parnell said “it is a bit of a silver lining” that One City Peterborough will not be involved as Brock Mission “does have rules and we do seem to have better results with Brock Mission.” She added that she would not be supporting the deferral.
Councillor Lachica, who said she waited to speak “to see where we are all at,” objected to some councillors characterizing the homeless population as “mentally ill and addicted only,” calling it “appalling” and a “complete stereotype.”
“There are different reasons why people are homeless,” she said, adding the issue is getting worse because of the affordability crisis, absentee landlords, renovictions, and people increasingly living in poverty. “For us as a council to be characterizing a population as criminal and dirty is inappropriate.”
Staff warn delay could leave city without winter response
In response to a question from councillor Vassiliadis about whether staff would only be looking at alternate locations in the central area or city wide, commissioner Laidman said there was no limitation but the August timeframe would make it “very difficult to do any type of intensive review and to have something appropriate back at council in that time period.”
Vassiliadis also asked Laidman if the Carnegie Avenue fire hall would be an option in the winter if council did not approve a winter response plan, who replied that staff do not have the capacity to open a winter shelter based on temperature.
“Staff will not be contemplating the opening of an overnight emergency shelter unless council approves something in this budget coming forward in this report or another report, because otherwise it just won’t be feasible,” Laidman said.
In his remarks, the mayor spoke about what the city has done to support homeless people, including the Wolfe Street modular housing community, before stating that the way to get rid of shelters is by developing permanent transitional housing.
“I had to use strong mayor powers to put 52 transitional units on 738 Chemong Road to help people who were homeless,” Leal said, referring to his controversial use of strong mayor powers to amend the city’s zoning by-law to expedite a Brock Mission development and to exempt it from the city’s site plan requirements.
“I don’t regret that decision then, I don’t regret it today, and if I had the opportunity I would do it again to provide more transitional housing to the vulnerable in this community.”
Council then voted on the deferral motion, which lost 5-6, following which councillor Baldwin introduced his motion to pre-commit funding for six months for the winter shelter response program.
After a brief debate on the motion, with councillor Beamer reiterating that he wouldn’t support it and stating that “This cannot become permanent,” council voted 9-2 in support of Baldwin’s motion.
