Task Force to Tackle Social Disorder Failure: 15 Months, 2 Accomplishments
Riverside Veterans Memorial Park - Owl News File Photo - Oct 2023
Zero for unhoused people. 20+ members. 13 Action Plan items. And a task force deadline that is only 58 days away.
Every day, the Kookums and other groups show up in a park and feed people who are hungry.
Every night, people sleep outside. In doorways. In tents. With no door to shut.
"A lot of these problem behaviours would go away if they had a door to shut."
Public drug use? Shut the door.
Public sex? Shut the door.
Sleeping in public? Shut the door.
Defecating or urinating in public? Shut the door.
It's not complicated.
But for 15 months, the City of Medicine Hat's Resilient and Inclusive Community Task Force has made it look impossibly complicated.
This week, council held its last meeting before summer break. Entirely closed. No open session. No notice. No questions.
The Kookums will still be in the park. The street people will still be in the heat. Council won't meet again until late August (but they will be Stampeding this week).
Winter is Coming
The Task Force's Record
Created: March 2025
Meetings: At least 12
Action Plan items: 13
Completed: 2 (both for businesses)
What they accomplished:
Downtown Enhancement and Safety Grant - benefits business owners
Streamlined event application form - benefits event organizers
What they accomplished for unhoused people:
Zip Zero Zilch
The Chamber of Commerce sits on a task force meant to address social disorder. Their interests are not the same as the people sleeping in doorways. The only two things this task force has actually delivered are business-friendly.
That's not a coincidence.
Winter is Coming
How Many People Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb?
Apparently, 20+.
Best practices for task forces: 7-12 members
Harvard Kennedy School: 5-9 for decision-making
Municipal World: no more than 12
RITF: 20+ - plus alternates, constituency managers, and rotating guests
That's not a task force. That's a crowd.
The minutes prove it:
Items are tabled
Deferred
Discussed again
Tabled again
The task force isn't designed for action. It's designed for representation. And representation without decision-making is just a talking shop.
20 people in a room doesn't give you 20 solutions. It gives you 20 reasons why something won't work.
Done is better than perfect. But with 20 people, done never happens.
Winter is Coming
Attendance Is Falling
Most at a meeting 20 (Sept 17, 2025)
Fewest at a meeting 12 (Oct 29, 2025)
Average attendance ~16
Meetings are getting further apart:
Early 2025: every 2 - 3 weeks
Spring 2026: every 4 - 6 weeks
April 15 2026 meeting: cancelled
May 27 2026 meeting: unknown if it happened
The people who are supposed to be solving the crisis are showing up less often.
Winter is Coming
The Transparency Chart
How long does it take for the public to find out what the task force discussed? An average of 6.5 weeks.
Owl News Analysis July 21 2026 - Kelly Allard
Buried in the consent agenda
No councillor has ever pulled them for debate
The public learns about decisions - and non-decisions - months after they happen. And even then, only if they dig.
Winter is Coming
Community Lockers: A Simple Solution That Got Killed
Last year the Owl spoke with Joseph Hutter, then the City's Managing Director of Public Services (now Interim City Manager), about downtown lockers. Hutter thought it was a great idea. He'd seen them work in Calgary and Vancouver. He even floated the transit terminal as a possible location - it already has enclosed bus shelters with doors that lock.
The need is obvious:
Businesses won't let people in if they're carrying everything they own
That means no job interviews. No medical appointments. No dignity.
Meanwhile, the city already has bicycle lockers downtown. Street people were already using them to store their belongings because they're secure.
The task force discussed lockers for four months. A working group was struck. A briefing note was promised.
Then, in January 2026: "Did not reach consensus." Killed.
No consensus on lockers
No consensus on shelters
No consensus on anything that might actually help
They're waiting for everything to be perfect. Instead of trying small things - like lockers, which already had a perfect location - they wait for the stars to align.
So they're paralyzed.
Done is better than perfect.
But they found consensus on a grant for downtown businesses.
Winter is Coming
The Shelter Failure Loop
Allowance Avenue:
Mustard Seed ran a daytime shelter
Neighbourhood fed up: public drug use, public sex, garbage, needles, crack pipes
City pulled the permit
Lunch service ended
"Ghost kitchen" only - food prepared, but nobody could eat it there
Mustard Seed wanted to add 20 beds - shut down
Saamis Drive:
City proposed new location - behind closed doors
Public found out. Outrage.
Mustard Seed withdrew rezoning application
Hoped for new location before winter 2025
Winter came. Winter went. No shelter.
The Good Neighbour Plan:
At a library meeting - which organizer Jaime Rogers specifically said did not include police, called On The Record - The Owl asked Mustard Seed CEO James Gardiner:
"Did you have a good neighbour plan for the Allowance Avenue location?"
His answer: "No."
"Why not?"
"Nobody asked for one."
They have poisoned the well so badly that nobody trusts the Mustard Seed anymore.
Notably, none of these issues happened when the Salvation Army ran the 8th Street shelter.
Winter is Coming
The Real Holdup?
According to our sources, the holdup is not the city, it's the Mustard Seed they say the Mustard Seed wants to buy a local hotel and operate a navigation centre there, expand the number of beds. They're holding out for that deal.
Sounds great, right?
However - Provincial policy allows shelters to transfer clients between communities when one is full and another has space. It's meant to ensure no one is turned away, but in practice, it creates a perverse incentive: if Medicine Hat adds more beds, we can become a dumping ground.
We don't want to increase the homeless population. We want to serve the population we already have - and get them into proper housing.
But we don't have enough of that either.
So the Mustard Seed waits for a hotel.
The city waits for the Mustard Seed.
The task force waits for consensus.
And the people outside wait for a door to shut.
Winter is Coming
The Agencies Are Losing Faith
Jaime Rogers, who runs the Medicine Hat Community Housing Society, didn't attend the May 6 task force meeting. She told Owl, What's the point?
The task force has members with real expertise and lived experience:
Kris Samraj: former councillor, ran for mayor
Stuart Young: homeless as a teen
Chris Hellman: in recovery
Kym Porter: lost her son to a drug poisoning, fierce advocate
None of that expertise has translated into action.
The task force is designed for talk, not delivery.
Winter is Coming
The Kookums
Meanwhile, the Kookums - partnering with the Root Cellar, Medicine Hat Cares Society, the Weinie Wednesday ladies, the Doughnut Lady and other volunteers - feed street people every single day. They didn't form a task force, they just did it. They started small and built a community effort through sheer grit and determination.
When city staff tried to shut them down over permits, their attitude was essentially:
Either help us or get out of our way.
The city blinked. They put a garbage bin in the park.
Mayor Linnsie Clark, Councillors Hellman and Young met with the Kookums. They saw the work being done.
But none of the Kookums are on the task force. Maybe that's because they're too busy actually helping people to sit through another meeting about planning to help people.
Winter is Coming.
Provincial Pressure
It appears the province is applying sustained, political and bureaucratic pressure to force a decision.
What we know:
December 2024: MLA Justin Wright publicly criticized the city's communication on the shelter file
He said a larger plan for navigation centres in smaller centres was on hold until the immediate shelter issue was dealt with
January 2026: Provincial spokesperson said they "continue to urge the city to identify and zone a location for a permanent shelter"
The associate deputy minister is in weekly contact with city administration
Wright stated the province has the means to step in, "but we do not want to do that"
Translation: The province is watching. They have the power to take over. They're telling the city to hurry up.
Winter is Coming
Powers-That-Be Avoid Public Scrutiny
July 15 Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA /Minister Justin Wright said in a social media post -
Grateful for Minister Wilson’s (Mental health and Addiction) team coming down to Medicine Hat to discuss homelessness and the supports available in our community.
Thank you to Medicine Hat Community Housing Society, Medicine Hat Family Service, The Mustard Seed, and the City of Medicine Hat for your continued leadership and commitment to helping those who need it most
Taken from Minister of Primary and Preventative Health Services, MLA for Cypress Medicine Hat Justin Wright Facebook page - sources confirm this is the Cypress Club
Consider the optics. A recent meeting about the current crisis was held at the Cypress Club - a private members-only club founded in 1903. Two blocks away sits City Hall.
We don't know who chose the location.
The juxtaposition is astounding.
A club built for the elites.
Meeting behind closed doors.
Discussing people who are the absolute opposite on the spectrum.
People who can't afford a meal there, let alone a membership.
The message, intended or not, is clear: when the powers that be want to talk about the unhoused, they do it somewhere the unhoused can't go.
Winter is Coming
The Task Force Report Card
Councillor Chris Hellman went on a local podcast and gave this council an A+ for their first six months.
The Owl gives the Task Force an F for their first 15.
Owl News Report Card - Kelly Allard July 21 2026
Winter is Coming
What's in a Name?
A "task force" is temporary. Struck for a purpose. Disbanded when complete.
This group:
Created March 2025
Terms of Reference extended
Deadline: 58 days away
Most items incomplete
At this point, it's not a task force. It's a permanent advisory body.
Whatever you call it, the result is the same.
Winter is Coming
Action Plan Deadline
The Task Force has until September 17, 2026 - now only 58 days away - to execute its 13-item Action Plan.
The search for a shelter? Still a 'standing item.'
The lockers? Killed by 'no consensus.'
The downtown washroom strategy? Paused.
Of the 13 items on the list, most remain incomplete.
Meanwhile, council will not return to the horseshoe until August 17. Until then,
Council will be Stampeding
The neighbours will still be angry.
The Kookums will still be feeding people.
The Mustard Seed will still be looking for a hotel.
The people sleeping outside will still be looking for a door to shut.
Did We Mention?
Winter is Coming
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AlexMcCuaig@comtv.ca
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