Ottawa mayoral candidate Jeff Leiper has promised to triple funding for night ambassadors and safety outreach, fill empty commercial spaces and create a dedicated area for festivals to improve the ByWard Market if elected later this month.
Talk about revitalizing the downtown heritage, shopping and entertainment district has been happening for years, but has recently intensified in the face of “challenges related to safety and access, public confidence, underperforming public spaces, and aging municipal infrastructure,” according to a city report this past March.
“The ByWard Market can and should be a gathering space, an economic driver, a job creator and the pride of Ottawa,” said Leiper in a news release.
However, the three-term city councillor said current city leadership is leading the market down the wrong path.
“This election is about putting Ottawa back on the right track. Making the ByWard Market vibrant and safe for Ottawa residents and businesses is part of our vision for our city’s future as a city that works,” said Leiper.
More funding for outreach programs
The first proposal in Leiper’s plan would triple funding for the ByWard Market Night Ambassador program and the city’s Community Engagement Team, and make that funding permanent.
The Night Ambassador Program has workers patrolling the market on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights to support people in need. The Community Engagement Team provides street outreach to homeless people during the day on weekdays.
“Those are the workers who are going to deal with people who are unhoused, people who are living with addictions, people who have mental illness issues on the street,” said Leiper.
He says expanding both programs would directly address public safety.
“Families in Kanata, in Barrhaven, Orléans, they want to visit this treasure in our city, but they don’t feel safe,” Leiper said at a media conference on Thursday.
Leiper said his plan intentionally doesn’t call for more policing downtown, saying that officers should focus on more immediate threats while homelessness, addictions and health issues require an outreach approach.
Filling vacant storefronts
Leiper also wants the city to work with business improvement areas and private landlords to create what he calls “meanwhile leases” for vacant commercial spaces.
The idea is to use short-term leases for public-facing businesses such as arts and cultural activities and temporary markets.
“Working with the landlords is something that I think the mayor is uniquely positioned to achieve,” said Leiper.
If he were elected mayor, Leiper said he could use a combination of advocacy and financial incentives to persuade landlords to participate, although he did not specify how much the program would cost or what subsidies might be offered.
Some market storefronts around Sussex Drive are also managed by the National Capital Commission.
Permanent festival plaza
Finally, Leiper is proposing a permanent festival plaza.
“One of the things that we’re hearing about from festival organizers is the extremely high cost of things like security,” he said.
Leiper said that by creating a dedicated festival space equipped with measures like bollards, they could ensure safety while cutting down on costs to organizers.
It’s a similar proposal to one included in council’s market revitalization plan.
Leiper said the location has not been decided and could involve federal and provincial partners.
York Street, which has previously been considered for an event plaza, is one possible location, but Leiper said he is “not necessarily entirely sold” on it.
People walk along stalls set up for a market on York Street in May 2021. (Rémi Authier/Radio-Canada)Other candidates on downtown safety
Some of Leiper’s higher-profile rivals for mayor have other approaches to public safety.
Speaking at the Ottawa Board of Trade debate Thursday evening, mayoral candidate Alex Lawson said he would increase the number of city police officers and increase police funding.
He says businesses are saying “‘It’s not worth for me anymore, my customers are getting harassed, people are coming in smashing glass.'”
“A nighttime ambassador isn’t going to stop that,” said Lawson.
Ottawa mayoral candidate Alex Lawson at an Ottawa Board of Trade debate on Thursday. (Michel Aspirot/CBC)
In that debate, Sutcliffe said the toxic drug, mental health and homelessness crises have been growing faster than the solutions the city has been able to provide.
He said that in addition to expanding alternative responses to crises, like the city’s ANCHOR program, “we need to hire more police officers, we need to work with the ByWard Market District Authority and have more private security available.”
In the debate, Neil Saravanamuttoo said his approach to improving public safety would be to increase the housing supply.
“You cannot police your way out of homelessness,” he said.
In an email, Saravanamuttoo added that he would introduce “rapid-response cleanup teams, expanded mobile health services, same-day access to detox and recovery beds, low-cost transitional housing and an expanded ANCHOR program.”
Election day is Oct. 26, with special advance voting until Oct. 4 and again Oct. 16.