Family of man who froze to death on St. Catharines, Ont., streets urges change to winter response plan

A year has passed since the death of Bob Allen, a man who died on the streets of downtown St. Catharines, Ont., from hypothermia, during –8 C temperatures.

Allen was experiencing homelessness when he died on Jan. 26, 2025.

His friends, family and the substance use support group Niagara Advocates with Lived/Living Experience (NALE) held a vigil last week to commemorate him, along others without shelter who died or lost a limb in the extreme cold.

The evening vigil took place just as a Niagara Region council meeting was about to begin in Thorold, Ont. At the meeting, a local councillor was putting forward a motion to provide more winter support for people experiencing homelessness and change the temperature threshold that would activate the region's winter emergency protocol.

Allen's sister Elizabeth Allen drove six hours south from her home in Temiskaming Shores, Ont., to join the vigil and speak at the meeting in support of the change.

“I’m not normally one to speak up, but I feel this is important,” Elizabeth told CBC News. “My brother doesn’t have a voice anymore.”

St. Catharines regional councillor Haley Bateman introduced the motion to expand the region's winter weather emergency protocol and see the protocol activated when temperatures, including wind chill, hit 0 C instead of –10 C.

Council says the threshold was already brought down to –10 C from from –15 C earlier this winter.

When the current protocol is activated, Niagara Region says it informs its network of shelters, outreach teams, transits, homeless agencies, emergency health services, Niagara regional police and partners to contact and support those unhoused. It also prompts the opening of more beds.

However, Bateman believes the –10 C threshold is still too cold.

“Speaking with residents for the last three years, they feel that’s too cold,” she said. “[Allen]’s death was absolutely preventable."

Scott Neufeld, community psychology assistant professor at Brock University and co-chair of NALE, believes the current regional temperature marker was arbitrarily chosen.

“It's not correlated to actual risk to people who can absolutely develop frostbite, cold weather-related injuries, and experience hypothermia and death, as we saw with Bob,” said Neufeld.

“If [the proposed protocol] had been in place a year ago, maybe my brother would still be here and not have died in this horrific way,” said Allen.