By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

“Lethbridge’s heart is stressed, but it isn’t broken” – downtown businesses express concern over drug, crime issues

Oct 22, 2018 | 4:35 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The drug crisis Lethbridge has been dealing with over the last couple of years is negatively impacting the economic viability of the downtown, and the Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) has a responsibility to relay those concerns to members of City Council.

Those sentiments were expressed at Monday’s Community Issues Committee meeting by BRZ presenters Stephen Mogdan and Hunter Heggie, both of whom work and/or own businesses in the downtown and who are also members of the organization’s Board of Directors.

During the presentation, Mogdan told councillors that business owners have reported up to an average 32 per cent decrease in sales in 2018 when compared with the same period in 2017 and that owners of restaurants and coffee shops have also reported up to an average 25 per cent decrease in sales during the same time.

He said that the BRZ wants to be part of the solution, but that there also needs to be an ongoing commitment from the City as well.

“We represent over 500 businesses in the downtown area. And if we can translate any message from council that is supportive, to our members, we want to be able to do that.

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“One of the solutions is the LPS Ambassador Watch Program. We think that the more presence that there is on the streets in the downtown, the better things are going to be for everyone downtown… the more that people see a visible presence, whether it’s police, whether it’s anybody in a uniform, anybody that’s close by, you tend to drive out problems and make it that much of a better experience for everybody.”

One of the criticisms from the BRZ was that there appears to be a ‘perception’ of being unsafe in the downtown area, and that social media and traditional media fan the flames of concern.

“We certainly recognize that there are some perception issues. I mean if you just go on Facebook, you see perception problems where people are putting stuff out on social media, that, as a downtown business owner…I know that that’s not true. That is portraying things in an unfair light, and that leads to some perception quite possibly where people are saying ‘well maybe I shouldn’t be coming downtown.’ So, we want to really guard against that…we want people to think of the downtown as a vibrant place.”

Hunter Heggie, who owns King of Trade on 5 St. S. also told the committee from his perspective, any illegal acts in the downtown should not be tolerated.

“I see acts of kindness every day,” explained Heggie. “But there’s a limit to what can be asked of us. In Lethbridge, there is behaviour that is happening that is unacceptable to me, and the vast majority of people…I know we need more facilities. Help for addicts is desperately needed…there needs to be lots of compromise.”

But some things, he added, could not be compromised.

“To tolerate illegal activity in our streets is unacceptable. Unacceptable, period.”

Mayor Chris Spearman said he appreciated the concern from the group, but that some of the solutions that were asked for were costly, and funding is not yet forthcoming from the province.

“We’ve been asking for supports from the provincial government and nothing is coming very quickly. We do need other services in addition to harm reduction. We need treatment, we need recovery, we need to make sure that the issue is moving along, and there’s a big sense of frustration that drug use is growing.”

Spearman says council may look at priority-based budgeting when it considers its 2019-2022 Operating Budget options in November.

“Do the police get more and some other departments get less? How can we make sure? Because it’s not within our mandate that the police spend the money in the areas the public is asking for. Is that an effective use of funds to address the issue?”  

However, Mogdan says if money is an issue, money could be redistributed in the BRZ budget to help pay for the Ambassador Watch Program, or other initiatives.

“We’re prepared, as the BRZ, to put some money towards that (Ambassador Watch Program). The unfortunate part of it is, we don’t see it being put into effect probably until sometime next year. Maybe June, July of next year and we don’t want to wait that long, so we’re also looking at some options for private security that will bridge us to get to that point.”

The information from the BRZ was accepted by the CIC as information and filed.