The view of downtown Lethbridge from CASA in December 2019. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge Council approves $1.6-million for Downtown Clean and Safe Strategy

Dec 10, 2019 | 10:40 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge City Council is allocating significant amounts of money to make the downtown core more clean and safe.

It includes a total of $1,684,000 over the next three years.

With the ask from Urban Revitalization Manager Andrew Malcolm being fairly substantial, council’s decision was not unanimous. Councillors Joe Mauro and Blaine Hyggen voted against it.

“It’s always a difficult decision for council to make,” says Malcolm. “It’s money that, I think one of the councillors said, we don’t want to spend, but it’s something we need to spend and that’s how everyone I think in the downtown feels is that, we would love to see this type of money go towards other types of things, but at this point in time, the downtown needs this type of funding to make sure people still feel safe and comfortable coming downtown.”

The breakdown of the funding for the Downtown Clean and Safe Strategy (DCSS) is as follows:

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Funding requirements for the 2020-2022 DCSS. (Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

Many of the DCSS initiatives started up in 2019 and Malcolm believes they have been efficient and well-used.

“The strategies we’ve put in place over 2019 have been effective at reducing the amount of publicly-visible needle debris, publicly-visible panhandling, people overdosing on the streets – all these types of things have gone down but they’re still happening, which indicates the reasons why we should have the programs to continue.”

Earlier this year, Malcolm and his team consulted local stakeholders in the downtown like Lethbridge Police and The Watch program, Heart of Our City Committee, the Downtown BRZ, Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Mental Health Association, Diversion Outreach Team, and the Clean Sweep Program.

Then in the summer, he talked to them again about the issues they are or have been facing.

In the images below, Malcolm detailed their responses for issues that have become more or less prominent or just recently became problems, as well as what actions they would like to see in the short and long term.

Some of the issues raised by groups in the DCSS six month debrief. (Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

Priority Actions identified by groups in the DCSS six month debrief. (Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

For more details on the 2020-2022 DCSS, use this link.