Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark troubled by conditions at City Centre Inn and worries there may be more sites like it

The City of Saskatoon can not do it alone. That’s what Mayor Charlie Clark says about all of the resources needed to address the relocation, housing, health and safety of 150 residents relocated from the City Centre Inn and Suites this week.

Inspectors have found dozens of violations, including pest and rodent infestations, structural problems, mold, hoarding concerns and fire safety issues.

Clark says the city is working with a host of agencies to find homes for those who were displaced.

“This is something that I do not take lightly at all. We are having and telling people that they need to relocate from their homes into a challenging time and into a challenging housing market…people can’t keep living in the deplorable conditions that were found.

“I’m extremely grateful to the incredible coordination and collaboration we had between our EMO department, Fire, the Saskatoon Tribal Council, the provincial Ministry of Social Services, AIDS Saskatoon, Community Action Alliance and now the inter-agency response.”

But that doesn’t take away from the fact that the incident has been extremely disruptive for those living and staying at the motel, he said.

When asked why it took an event of this magnitude to coordinate that kind of response, Clark said the city’s Safe Community Action Alliance was created to try to foster more coordination and relationships between organizations – but that there’s still a lot more work to do.

That includes more property and health inspections. According to the Saskatoon Fire Department, the last time the site had a fire safety inspection was in Jan. 2019 – more than a year-and-a-half ago.

Assistant Fire Chief Yvonne Raymer said the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the inspection process this year.

As for health inspections addressing issues like raw sewage found at the motel, bedbug, cockroach and rodent infestations – Clark says that’s up to the Saskatchewan Health Authority to investigate.

In a statement, SHA spokesperson Amanda Purcell says the last inspection was July 20.

“Saskatchewan Health Authority public health has been attempting to work with the management of this facility for a number of years to provide safe housing for these residents. This includes complaint-based inspections, as well as education and support.”

After additional inquiries, Purcell told 650 CKOM in a statement that “Over the course of the last five years (since 2015) there were 35 complaint reports made regarding the hotel/residence portion of the City Centre Inn and Suites. It is important to note that a complaint report may include more than one person issuing a complaint on the same issue. Depending on the nature of the complaint, it could result in varying action from public health, including a phone call or visit with staff or ownership at the facility, providing education and/or a formal inspection at the site.”

Since that time, there have been 27 inspections done by public health officers at the same property. They found varying issues, including unsanitary conditions and pest control violations.

The statement also indicates that “Significant enforcement activity (was) undertaken by public health in 2015-16 involving placarding (closing) numerous rooms, and a Precautionary Drinking Water Advisory (PDWA) issued in 2017 due to a lack of running water at the facility for an extended period.”

But Clark says there needs to be more capacity to do complete public health-related inspections.

“There used to be some funding from the provincial government to expand the level of inspections they could do on houses and identify some of these issues. That funding was withdrawn in 2016. It was cut.”

There is also some worry that there are more properties in Saskatoon with similar or even worse conditions. According to Clark, there have been several reports to city council and the Board of Police Commissioners about certain properties that have been the site of hundreds of police calls per year, along with fire safety code violations.

“We have shut down other buildings in the past. I am concerned that there might be others like this. I know that some buildings are less safe than others. That is why we need to have this coordinated effort.

“The city on our own can not solve this issue.”