Downtown Buzz Downtown public safety strategy


News from the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone


Stefano Grande addresses the crowd at the recent Safety Summit in Winnipeg. T


he Downtown BIZ is appreciative of the City of Win- nipeg allocating a good portion of the $3.5 million unspent funds in the Destination Marketing Reserve


to support the development of a multi-year downtown public safety strategy. Te injection of funds is timely and strate-


gic, as our downtown is seeing an increase in tourism, conventions, and national events, as well as an increase in visitors, students and residents as a result of significant investments in our downtown over the last several years. Subsequently, there is a need to continue in- novating new ideas towards our ongoing goal of creating a safer downtown for everyone. Tis injection of City funds will help build on


the safety successes over the last several years. For example, a short time ago, there were


no-dedicated community police foot patrols downtown, nor a Cadet Program. Today there are 16 police foot patrols and a Cadet program of up to 40 youth per intake. Teir presence is evident in our downtown and has provided positive results, and our working relationship with WPS has blossomed even more. A few years ago, there were no outreach services to help the homeless off our streets who have slipped through the cracks. Today we have in place, with the support of the City, our Community Homeless Assistance Team which helps people in need navigate the system of services by finding homes to over 200 people a


Downtown Stefano Grande


Brian Bowman also spoke at the Safety Summit.


year, and connecting 100’s more to the services they need but can’t access. It’s imperative that we continue to innovate and move the ball forward, collaboratively. We believe this new downtown public safety


strategy and injection of funds is a great step an in the right direction. 1. Te proposed Exterior Lighting program 2. The Expansion of the Winnipeg Police


Service Closed-Circuit Television program. 3. Te TrackTik pilot project – to enhance


private public communications, reporting and analysis of downtown issues and challenges. 4. The Enhancement Downtown Ambas-


sadors SafeWalk Program – which aims at walking people with safety concerns to and from downtown places, in particular in the evening and for women which we recognize as challenges based a recent survey by WPS. 5. And other strategies which we feel are the


right investments by the City One of the things that we have learned is


that downtown safety is much more than just policing and enforcement, and over the last decade the Winnipeg Police Service has communicated that they cannot do it alone. Te complexity of safety requires partnerships, creativity, co-ordination and integration of all community resources, in order to effectively respond to the increasing challenges of safety.


Te addition of these news tools, and collaborative ap-


proaches supports this goal, and itself brings our relation- ships with WPS and the private sector the next level. We are also appreciative of the City and the Civil service


reaching out to the stakeholders such as the BIZ and asking for our feedback. We don’t take for granted the opportunity to help shape policies and programs, and we are thankful for this chance. On May 7th, the Downtown, Exchange and West End


BIZ welcomed more than 150 community stakeholders to listen to thought leaders from across Canada and the United States for our Downtown Winnipeg Safety Summit at the RBC Convention Centre. Tank-you again Mayor Bowman for spending a good part of the day with us, as well as Chief Danny Smyth who shared with us his vision and ideas, which resonated with stakeholders. Te Summit was designed to bring together a cross rep-


resentation of public, not-for-profit, charitable, Indigenous and private sector individuals from key organizations and groups who share our vision, and who also gave of their ideas to achieve our collective vision. Together we discussed and shared best practices in creating a safer, more welcoming and more inclusive downtown through public and private sector collaboration and partnerships. Our intent was to have the community prioritize ad-


ditional safety strategies to inform the process of the Civil service in developing recommendations regarding this multi-year downtown public safety strategy.


6Safety Summit page 7


Downtown Biz has several ongoing safety initiatives already in place.


Over 150 community stakeholders from across North America were in attendance at the Safety Summit.


downtownwinnipegbiz.com (204) 958-4640


info@downtownwinnipegbiz.com 426 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3C 0C9 September 2018 www.manitobapost.com Manitoba Post 7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16