The City’s extreme cold weather policy kicked in twice over the holidays.

Staff at the Thompson Homeless Shelter say the policy was used during the two coldest nights in December; 11 people on the first night and 5 on the second. Until then it hadn’t been used yet this winter.

First introduced in 2013, the policy provides residents with a warm place to stay the night when the temperature is -35 and below. 

Last winter we saw 45 nights where the temperature dipped to -35, but the policy was used only 11 times.