Downtown Moncton Business Group Focused On Social Issues, Bringing Workers Back
MONCTON – The organization that represents property owners and businesses in the downtown core says it’s concentrating efforts on addressing social issues and the impact of Covid-19 at its annual general meeting last week.
Anne Poirier Basque, the executive director of Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. (DMCI), says they’re focused on the lack of services for vulnerable populations downtown, which has impacted businesses in the area.
“We’re actively addressing these issues with the city because we are not the ones who can enforce, or provide security, for by-law enforcement,” she said. “But what we can do is advocate for things that businesses will need, and our businesses are telling us that they need increased policing and street patrols, they want public washrooms – we desperately need public washrooms in our downtown.”
Additionally, she says more funding for outreach services is needed in the short-term. In the long-run, the city needs affordable housing with wrap-around services for mental health and addictions.
With many major and public buildings closed due to the pandemic, those experiencing homelessness don’t have many places to warm up.
“It’s starting to get cold outside. We see them more on the streets and they don’t have the public washrooms,” she said. “So we’re seeing things like feces in the alleys, just that kind of stuff that we’ve never seen before…we all have basic needs and those things need to be addressed.”
“We can’t expect our vulnerable population, when everything is closed up, to isolate. Well, they don’t have areas to isolate necessarily,” she added.
Poirier Basque says public washrooms would not only help those who are experiencing homelessness, but also downtown visitors.
“As our downtown grows, as we have more events and festivals we can’t put public washrooms at the back of our business all the time,” she said.
DMCI is advocating for these solutions by working with the city, RCMP, YMCA Re-connect, the Chamber of Commerce, and the economic development agency 3+.
“We’re learning to manage that in collaboration with everyone,” she says. “There has to be eyes and ears on the streets, patrolling, there have to be outreach services, all of those things put together. We need to collaborate.”
DMCI president Jocelyne Dupuis, who is also the property manager for Adelin Properties, said in an interview with Huddle earlier this month that the problem of safety and security downtown has worsened in the last few years.
“It’s definitely increased over the past two years, and during Covid…we’ve seen even more because there’s kind of nobody around to make people committing crimes be worried about being caught,” she said.
Adelin saw two tenants move to Riverview and Dieppe since it bought 110 St. George plaza a year ago. It’s also facing difficulties for its other downtown properties.
“I’m having a hard time getting people to even be interested in coming to see them because they’re like, ‘oh downtown, I don’t want to.’ It’s not even just local people,” she said. “We’re getting the reputation across Canada of, I don’t want to move to your downtown because it doesn’t sound good right now.”
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In addition to support services for mental health and addictions, she says “the biggest thing is more presence, whether it be with security or just people in general, for [those committing crimes] to feel like they’re overcrowded.”
“We need more people downtown,” Dupuis said. “It’s a catch-22 situation. We have to grow maybe to make it better, but you can’t grow until it’s better. So we need somebody to kind of step up and be the first leader in it.”
Pandemic Impact
Covid-19 has “hollowed out” the downtown core, as only one-third of the 22,000 workers there have returned, Poirier Basque said.
“Downtown grew and developed, and has all kinds of cafes, restaurants and businesses, and that was to sustain 22,000 people coming to work,” she said.
“Well, the restaurants, for instance, they’re cutting back staff. The hotels are only operating at 6 percent. The retailers are reducing their hours and also their personnel, so all of this affects our businesses for sure.”
Now the organization is focused on bringing those workers back, by convincing the largest employers to allow more of their staff to work in their downtown buildings.
Poirier Basque said they’re looking at options like allowing employees to work from their offices two or three times a week. She’s also encouraging employers to buy gift cards for their staff so they can come downtown and shop.
Additionally, Poirier Basque encourages the public to shop locally at downtown retailers and restaurants. She says with the locations being smaller, the environment is more controlled and safer.
“Our retailers, our restaurants, they’re prepared. We’ve been through orange, then yellow, then back to orange. They’ve got all the PPE that they need, they’ve got the sanitizers, a lot of them have plexiglass,” she said.
Inda Intiar is a reporter for Huddle. Send her story suggestions: [email protected]