The City of Meadow Lake has barred the windows and bolted the door as far as providing funding for the local homeless shelter is concerned. During the regular meeting of Meadow Lake city council held Monday (Sept. 22), an operational funding request from the Meadow Lake Homeplate Shelter Coalition Corp. for the remainder of 2025 to March 2026 was denied.

“During the regular council meeting of Aug. 25, the Meadow Lake Homeplate Shelter Coalition Corp. had a delegation do a presentation on the need for funds to expand and continue the services provided at the shelter,” explained Asma Qadri, the city’s director of finance, in her official recommendation to council. “Since the commencement of the shelter in October 2023, the city has provided it with $30,000 in funding. A review of the unaudited financials of the shelter from August 2023 to April 2025 shows a net surplus of $33,995.36. Including the budget 2025-2026 values provided, the shelter would remain positive with a surplus of $51,381.36.”

Qadri went on to note a forecast as of June 2025 has also been provided for the 2025- 2026 fiscal period. The forecast estimates a deficit for the 2025-2026 period, but – even with this forecasted loss – the shelter’s cash position would remain positive with a surplus of $23,702.36. 25094SS1 “As the request presented is to support the Homeplate shelter, and the shelter has sufficient cash reserves to continue operating for the 2025-2026 fiscal period; the request for further funding at this time is not recommended,” Qadri said. “The most important considerations are the city does not have a mandate to provide housing for residents. In addition, the agreement entered into in 2023 was to cover a forecasted deficit, which due to the fundraising efforts of the shelter board and management, has been avoided. For these reasons, further funding from the city is not necessary.” When Bill Sclater of the Homeplate board presented to council last month, he requested the city provide $5,000 per month to assist operation of the shelter beginning in September and continuing through March. “Further funding may be required after this date, but we are hoping Sask. Housing Corp. increases its funding after April 1,” Sclater said at the time. “Presently, SHC funds five shelter spaces. We will have further meetings this fall with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, which normally only funds operations on reserve.”

The motion to deny the request was made by councillor Mauri Young and seconded by councillor Ron Dishko. “There’s a lot of information here, and, based on their (Homeplate’s) financials, I don’t think funding on our part is required,” Young said. “I’ll get some feedback when I go to my first meeting.” At council’s last meeting, a decision was made to appoint Young as a council representative on the Homeplate board. Dishko, meanwhile, agreed with his fellow councillor. “I did notice the province is coughing up some more money for shelters in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert… maybe some of that will start to trickle our way,” he said. Councillor Conrad Read also pointed out the request made by Homeplate is not something the city budgeted for this year. “It would be hard to come up with that kind of funding when everything else is spoken for,” he stated. Mayor Merlin Seymour did point out the importance of the shelter in Meadow Lake and the work Homeplate does. “It’s a very much needed entity within our city,” he said. “But, on the same token, with the financials provided to us, it makes it tough to dig into a budget that was passed 10 months ago in order to find funding for this now.”