Manitoba donating underused pandemic visitation shelters to non-profits, municipalities, First Nations

The Manitoba government has decided to donate more than 100 sheltersmade fromrepurposed shipping containers and intended to provide visiting spaces at personal care homes in the early stages of the pandemicto municipalities,First Nations and non-profits.

The 104 external shelters were commissioned in 2020 to help personal care home residents safely visit their loved ones when visitation was restricted inside the homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, buthave beensitting virtually unused outsidecare homes since restrictions were eased.

On Friday, the provinceannounced they'll be donated to 27 different groups.

Earlier this spring, the provinceissued anexpression of interestannouncing it intended to removethe units from the personal care homes, and needed interested bidders to offer options for how thiscould be accomplished whether that meant donating them, auctioning them off or recycling them as scrap.

The province has now decided to donate them.

Government Services Minister James Teitsma said around half of those who applied to receive a shelter will get at least one.

"We had the phoneringingin the office that manages the expressions of interest, which does not often happen, if ever happened," Teitsma said at a Friday news conferencein front of the bison exhibit at Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg.

There was a "tremendous response from Manitobans, but also tremendous variety and creativity" in the applications.

The uses will include housing, recreation, animal care, vegetation and farming, among others. Each successful applicant will getbetween one and17 of the visitation pods.

The province said 43 shelters will go to First Nations communities includingLong Plain, Dakota Tipi,Bloodvein River andYork Factory First Nations and six will go to municipalities.

Another 55 will go to a range of not-for-profit and community support organizations, including theBear Clan Patrol,K9 Advocates Manitoba, theJohn Howard Society,Rugby Manitoba and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg will get the most shelters 17. It'll use the pods toraise endangered butterflies, createa dropoff site for rescued wildlife and provide more space to care for animals.

A full list of recipients is available on a government website.

Visitation pods faced scrutiny

These repurposed shipping containershave been the subject ofscrutiny since they were placed at nursing homes across the province during the height of the pandemic, in late 2020 and early 2021.

What started as an $18-million project touted as an investment fornursing homes battling COVID-19 ended incost overruns, and the units were underutilized.

The province promisedto cover all operational costs for the units. The entire project, which also included 57 interior pods, reached almost $73million in capital and operational costs.

It's expected to cost an additional $5 million to decommission the shelter and remediate the sites, according to tender documents.

Teitsma said Friday that following its expression of interest, the provincereceived 46 requests for donations and ninefor auction.

He said he preferred to spread the units to a wide range of proponents, rather than only a few.

"I think the idea of finding a lot of different community-good purposes was part of what we were hoping for," Teitsma said, adding preference was given to proponents who will keep visitation pods within their community.

Teitsmasaid some of the rejected options includedbusinesses that wanted the repurposed shipping containers forcommercial benefit.

The proponentsmust cover the cost of transporting the shelters to the new locations. Teitsma said he's confident the chosen recipients will have the capacityto do so.