Building on the success of last year’s event, the Sargent Avenue Business Community held the 2026 Retail Crime Prevention Conference on Monday at X-Cues Event Centre. As I suggested previously, their format is a model that should be adopted by BIZ organizations across the city to share knowledge and ground-level experiences among stakeholders in our neighborhoods.
Numerous organizations and businesses had tables with flyers, brochures and resource information on display, among them security firms, Crime Stoppers, Bear Clan, the Winnipeg Police Service, and the Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP).
Photo credit supplied photo
Numerous organizations and businesses had tables with flyers, brochures and resource information on display, among them security firms, Crime Stoppers, Bear Clan, the Winnipeg Police Service, and the Citizens on Patrol Program (COPP). One new addition to the line-up was Walkeazy, an app made in Winnipeg that connects users to a live agent who can watch and listen in real time as the client gets to their destination.
A variety of handout sheets provided advice and checklists for business owners on “minimizing the potential for theft and violence in your store’, and a summary provided by the Manitoba government on the Safer Communities and Neighborhoods Act and how it can be utilized to investigate problematic properties. A 16 page Crime and Information Guide was distributed by the hosts.
Nine panel discussions were presented covering concerns such as personal safety, navigating restaurant crime, and cost effective security solutions. Among those in attendance was Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe, who made a presentation and was clearly interested in the issues being voiced by participants.
Information gleaned from the panels included that one business suffered 13 break-ins until they installed costly new security features; that the only voluntary drug rehab program for youth typically releases the patient after only three days; and that a Main Street Project plan to add a third supportive housing project in the area could complicate community safety efforts.
Information gleaned from the panels included that one business suffered 13 break-ins until they installed costly new security features.
Photo credit supplied photo
Statistics Canada data indicates that the West End saw the largest jump in crime severity nationally from 2020 to 2024, with an increase of 25%. Poverty, gangs, drug dealing and addiction all contribute to the challenging environment faced by area residents and business owners.
I was interested in which challenges had improved for stakeholders since last year’s conference and which might have gotten worse. The Executive Director of the Sargent Avenue business group told me that while shoplifting has decreased, public disorder has increased.
Michael Paille owns Cobra Collectibles next door to X-Cues, and he showed me a security video taken recently of the sidewalk outside his store. A group of six people stood outside his door as a staff member tried to take their sandwich board sign inside.
As she did, the group passed around a pipe, and “these three boys just had to walk thru the cloud of meth to get past, and they were coughing and choking. These poor kids had to go through that. That’s what we had to put a stop too. So while there’s less people shoplifting, the amount of people doing drugs outside our businesses have tripled.”
An assault near the Sunshine House MOPS van has raised concerns about the NDP’s plan for a safe consumption site at 366 Henry Avenue, highlighting issues with the van’s federal exemption and community safety.
“Before we had to deal with shoplifting, but now we have to deal with blocking our entrance,” Paille explained, “but 20 minutes later they’re back again because they don’t remember me telling them to leave! So we’ve now escalated from dealing with one crime problem to a new crime problem that’s affecting us. Public use of drugs is really hurting public safety.”
It’s not only a West End problem.
Just last week, a woman who operates an art gallery that provides children’s programming on Main Street near Logan Avenue had to chase away a trio on her doorstep using a ‘bubble’ (meth pipe), and when she started complaining to social agency workers that had just provided the “harm reduction” items to the threesome, another user nearby rushed over and slugged her in the left eye, leaving the woman with a bloody wound streaming down her face.
Paille related that about two weeks ago, his youngest child was walking through Central Park at 1pm going to work “and a 50 year old woman hit him and tried to steal his bag. Forty people watching,” he said, but none moved to help.
“We’ve almost become compliant,” lamented Paille. ”I see it all the time with people recording (an incident) on their phones. How hard is it to call 911 and say, there’s a guy being assaulted?” He thinks people who stand by filming and don’t call the cops should be charged.
Paille said he’s also seen more graffiti, violent crime and youth crime in the last year, and he worries that “at some point we’re going to start losing businesses.”
While Paille is appreciative of the police and non-profits that try to provide services for the homeless and mentally unstable on our streets, he’s critical that City Hall has not maintained proper police staffing levels.
“From 2010 to now we have less officers but 200,000 more people, we’re down 60 officers.” But he notes that with new investigative units launched to investigate cyber crime and scams targeting seniors, “we’re down probably 600-700 officers from where it should be for us to be safe.”
While the advocacy of the Sargent Avenue merchants and West End BIZ has “actually made a dent in a bunch of little things,” Paille explained that it’s important for the community to “work together. That way, we can be a force that gets listened to.”
— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist and a guest writer for the Winnipeg Sun. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show