Fairmont Baptist Church Minister Robert Pearce is still urging the province and City of Saskatoon to ‘end the Fairhaven fiasco’ and shut down the Emergency Wellness Centre, as he believes he has uncovered an unsettling truth about the facility.

Robert Pearce says the Emergency Wellness Centre is operating illegally and has been since its inception in 2022.

Through a Freedom of Information Request, Pearce says he has viewed a letter that was addressed to the province from the City of Saskatoon. The letter advertises the EWC as a Special Care Home, but Pearce says the facility doesn’t meet the criteria needed to be one. This includes having a kitchen, laundry services, and a full-time registered nurse, dietician, and licensed medical practitioner.

The facility also isn’t listed as a Special Care Home in the Saskatchewan Gazette Part I, as required by law.

“That’s a major one right there. It was obviously never intended to be a Special Care Home,” Pearce states.

In addition, Special Care Homes are permitted within M2 zoning districts such as Fairhaven, but shelters are not.

“Under M2 zoning, there is a whole list of things that are (considered) appropriate use of the property. A shelter is not one of them,” he explains. “There is an explicit reason why they wanted to list it as a Special Care Home, (and it was) so they could not have a rezoning hearing so that a shelter could be allowed there.”

Pearce says he began investigating the status of the EWC after a recent meeting with the province, where it slipped that the facility is funded as a shelter.

“It just didn’t seem right. It certainly wasn’t a Special Care Home. I was a pastor in a Special Care Home for four years. I know the requirements that are required for Special Care Homes.”

He also calls on the City to reimburse those living in Fairhaven for 18-months of repairs, stolen goods, and security measures they have had to implement.