Waiting list of 727 for the Red Deer Provincial Training School

1928. The Mental Defectives Act was introduced in Alberta in 1919, and defined “defectives” as persons incapable of managing their own affairs. It also mentioned the creation of a home for feeble-minded children.

Instead of a home for feeble minded children, the Provincial Training School at Michener Centre in Red Deer opened in 1923. The Provincial Training School opened with 108 children and youth under age 20 referred by family doctors, social workers, and eventually by mental hygiene clinics, and public schools directly.

For many years, this Provincial Training School was the only facility offering residential care and training for mentally handicapped children and youth in Canada. By 1928, the school population had reached 160 and, by 1929, it had a waiting list of 727 children, resulting in intense pressure from parents, social agencies, and legislators to increase admissions. The school also became a large feeder for sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act in Alberta.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Dechant, G.M. (2006). Winter’s Children: The Emergence of Children’s Mental Services in Alberta, 1905-2005. Edmonton: The Muttart Foundation.

Waiting list of 727 for the Red Deer Provincial Training School

1928. The Mental Defectives Act was introduced in Alberta in 1919, and defined “defectives” as persons incapable of managing their own affairs. It also mentioned the creation of a home for feeble-minded children.

Instead of a home for feeble minded children, the Provincial Training School at Michener Centre in Red Deer opened in 1923. The Provincial Training School opened with 108 children and youth under age 20 referred by family doctors, social workers, and eventually by mental hygiene clinics, and public schools directly.

For many years, this Provincial Training School was the only facility offering residential care and training for mentally handicapped children and youth in Canada. By 1928, the school population had reached 160 and, by 1929, it had a waiting list of 727 children, resulting in intense pressure from parents, social agencies, and legislators to increase admissions. The school also became a large feeder for sterilization under the Sexual Sterilization Act in Alberta.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Dechant, G.M. (2006). Winter’s Children: The Emergence of Children’s Mental Services in Alberta, 1905-2005. Edmonton: The Muttart Foundation.