As temperatures spike, West End Resource Centre may cut hours if it can't fix AC

Arturo Chang · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 04, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

A non-profit successful Winnipeg's West End said it could beryllium forced to trim work hours if it doesn't rise capable wealth to hole its aerial conditioning strategy heading into the canine days of summer.

Staff astatine the West End Resource Centre — which provides a scope of services successful the Daniel McIntyre and St. Matthews neighbourhoods, from drop-ins to employment help — found retired the aerial conditioning astatine its 823 Ellice Ave. gathering didn't enactment in May, erstwhile staff tried to crook it on.

They discovered the AC had been vandalized, and the outdoor copper pipes connected to the strategy were missing.

The centre said successful a quality merchandise that temperatures inside the installation present scope astir 30 C, making it unsafe for staff, volunteers, and assemblage members.

Chris Ash, the centre's assemblage partnerships supervisor, said Thursday it may beryllium forced to displacement work hours earlier "for the adjacent small while."

"As a assets centre, we're a spot that radical travel to chill off, get what they need, and we couldn't supply a harmless space," Ash said. "So it was truly benignant of disappointing that that wasn't thing that we could offer."

Ash said since the AC's been out, the fig of seniors attending the centre's regular events has dropped by half. About 50 clients usage the centre's services every day, helium said.

"Whenever we person our nutrient giveaways … we person possibly 35 radical successful the centre. So it gets lukewarm truly quickly," Ash said. "You tin spot radical sweating, radical struggling, radical adjacent giving up and leaving."

The centre has been raising wealth to get the strategy moving again since it discovered the pipes were missing successful May, but Ash said unit shifted absorption aboriginal connected to helping immoderate of the thousands of evacuees fleeing the wildfires successful bluish Manitoba.

About $1,200 had been raised done GoFundMe arsenic of Thursday evening to hole the AC and marque it harder for radical to vandalize it successful future. Ash said helium hopes to get the strategy fixed arsenic rapidly and with arsenic small disruption to services arsenic possible.

Meanwhile, with vigor warnings presently successful effect for Winnipeg, the centre's unit is doing what they tin to past the sweltering heat.

"Day to day, it's a batch of drinking water.… We've been having a batch of freezies," Ash said. "We conscionable got fans everyplace and we conscionable instrumentality turns successful beforehand of the fans, really."