Moncton council talks downtown security following report from task force

Downtown safety concerns and plans to address the issue occupied much of Moncton's city council meeting Monday. 

The meeting heard a presentation about the Community Task Force on Homelessness and Downtown Security report released late last month. Councillors also hit pause on approving the downtown business association's budget in order to deal with security concerns from several shops.

John Wishart, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Moncton, outlined the 27 action items in the report prepared by the task force the chamber launched in June. The proposals are for various levels of government, shelters, law enforcement and others. 

"We want to use it as a roadmap to dramatically reduce homelessness and improve downtown security," Wishart said Monday, telling councillors there won't be any quick or easy fixes to the issues.

Among the items are pushing the province to offer a mental health court, similar to one in Saint John; providing mental health and addictions supports in homeless shelters; and studying safe drug injection sites.

Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold said it will be important to call on the province to do more on mental health and addictions. 

Wishart said the federal government has approved paying $50,000 for one action item: hiring a managing director who will oversee implementation of the remaining 26 action items. He said YMCA's ReConnect street outreach service applied for the funding and they hope to start the hiring process later this week.

"You're probably looking for a miracle worker for sure, but we just can't miss on that hire," said Coun. Dave Steeves. 

The task force included Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold, Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe Liberal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Moncton South PC MLA Greg Turner and Codiac Regional RCMP commanding officer Supt. Ron DeSilva.

DeSilva, who spoke before Wishart during the meeting, faced questions about downtown safety.

"What are we doing in downtown Moncton to make sure those businesses, people know that it's safe to come downtown, start their Christmas shopping, come down to the restaurants, support the local businesses?" Coun. Shawn Crossman asked.

DeSilva said RCMP increased patrols with marked vehicles in the core and assigned two officers to conduct regular foot patrols. He said a review of calls for police service show many were categorized as mischief, though they were about people sleeping in doorways or other situations that aren't necessarily committing crimes.

He said the force has increased its community policing unit to respond to concerns in the city and is looking to open a satellite office in the core. The office was among the action items in the task force report.

"Obviously, the location where … our office sits today, we don't see a lot of incidents such as the ones we see in the other parts of town," DeSilva said of the detachment, located toward the eastern end of downtown on Main Street.