Clearwater County council will decide next month how it wants to approach a $37,000 request from Rocky Mountain House’s cold-weather warming shelter during budget deliberations.
A “ballpark” need of $28,000 was presented by a delegation that appeared before council on Nov. 12.
Since then, county staff have been in contact with the warming shelter group to determine its funding needs for 2026, which were determined to be $37,000.
The request is up from the county’s previous one-time contribution of $17,000 to fund roughly half of last season. This new funding request would cover the entire 2025–26 season.
–
RELATED
–
The organization’s budget outlines 25 weeks of service from early November 2025 to late April 2026. Funding would go toward staffing, food, rent, insurance, laundry and other operating costs.
In total, 181 days of service are planned at nine hours per day, for a projected 1,629 hours of operation.
As of November, the town of Rocky Mountain House’s commitment stood at $12,500, to be used when temperatures fall below –20 C.
Deputy Reeve Drew McKay said he sympathizes with people facing hardship but voiced concern about the larger funding request.
“The meals that the [Nov. 12 delegation] indicated were maybe a warm cup of soup once a week, but now we see a full menu,” he said. “So this has gone from a warming shelter to a completely functioning homeless shelter.”
Clearwater County Deputy Reeve Drew McKay speaks to concerns of the level of service at Rocky’s cold weather warming shelter
Food items listed in the budget include tuna casserole, meatballs, soup and chili, at a cost of about $250 per week, or $6,500 for the season.
Division 7 Coun. Lorne Humphrey agreed, saying he prefers a “hand-up over a handout” approach.
“If we make it so appealing that they’re getting three square meals a day and a cot, then they’ll be coming out of Red Deer and every other place just for the handout,” he said.
The shelter has kept a log of patrons since the start of October, with nightly attendance ranging from around two to nine people during the relatively warm month.
Coun. Bryan Cermak said a funding commitment should be made sooner rather than later.
“I think we need to do something, because they’re open now and have probably used up some of their reserves,” he said.
Council voted 6–1 to defer the request to December budget deliberations, with Cermak opposed.
Options for council to consider in the meantime could be matching the $17,000 from last year, doing a “temperature trigger” model similar to the town, or deciding to forward monthly installments.
During the Nov. 12 delegation, Kandis Stradecki, chair of Family and Community Support Services, said two provincial grants of $15,000 and $30,000 have been secured.
The shelter, located at the Lord’s Food Bank on 52nd Street in Rocky Mountain House, is open nightly from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. throughout the winter.
Comments