Updates on Our Approach to Transit Safety in Edmonton

In February of this year I published an op-ed in the Edmonton Journal addressing some of the concerns I’ve heard (and experienced) regarding transit and transit safety in Edmonton.

In light of today’s announcement from the provincial government about increased transit-safety related funding and other resources to help municipalities address crime and transit safety–I wanted to take the opportunity to re-share my thoughts with you, and highlight some of the improvements and changes we’ve made and can anticipate in the coming months.

In 2022 Council approved our Enhanced Transit Safety and Security Plan

In this plan, the City, the Edmonton Police Service, and Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society recommended a safety approach to addressing crime and connecting people experiencing homelessness (and using the transit system for shelter) to housing options, mental health, and addictions support.

We developed a Downtown Core and Transit System Safety Plan for the Government of Alberta, and in Budget 2023 Council approved 13.5 Million dollars in investments to transit safety resources.

Our progress on this plan includes things such as:

• Hiring a Director of Transit Safety to oversee and lead this work
• Hiring additional transit security dispatchers to support the Transit Watch program and have greater oversight of our surveillance cameras
• Expanding the Community Outreach Transit Teams with additional investment last month to expand the program for 3 years and grow our teams from 5 to 7

• Ensuring safe and clean access to transit washrooms. All 18 washrooms are open with enhanced cleaning and safety measures in place
• We also approved our Public Washroom Strategy to increase access to hygiene and washroom facilities throughout Edmonton
• We continue to increase the presence of security, peace officers, police, and outreach workers across our transit network.
• We have added additional Transit Peace Officers and are currently recruiting more; bringing us to over 117 staff members within our Transit Peace Officer teams, including frontline officers, sergeants and management.
• By this Fall, we expect to have the full complement of our team hired, trained, and deployed, growing our TPO presence by 20% and seeing 20 more Transit Peace Officers in transit spaces.

• Developing education and outreach activities to support our efforts such as our new Bystander Awareness Campaign aimed at tackling gender-based violence and harassment in transit spaces. (More information to come this week)
• Mobile drug poisoning prevention teams are activated and engaged in LRT stations through a community health partnership that helps save lives.
• We’ve invested $10.8 million over four years for 24/7 Crisis Diversion to reduce pressure on EPS resources.
• We concentrated direct investment in safety in the core of the city, including $15.2 million for the Healthy Streets Operations Centre which brings 48 constables and 6 sergeants into Chinatown, along with 4 Peace Officer Sergeants and 14 Community Peace Officers.

Additionally, Council placed a strong emphasis on housing initiatives during Budget 2023–26 to help address some of the root causes of displacement and homelessness in Edmonton.

Things like:

• $35 million in capital and $18.7 million annually in operating investment for Affordable Housing and Homelessness Prevention.
• And an additional $6.6 million annually for the Affordable Housing Investment Program that provides municipal property tax relief to affordable housing providers.

We’ve taken great strides to address the needs and gaps in our system at the municipal level to get at the heart of issues related to transit safety.

But these actions won’t produce the results we want without meaningful collaboration and alignment from other levels of government.

Which brings us to the Government of Alberta’s recent action items:

In February the province began deploying Sherrifs in a 15-week pilot to increase EPS patrols through the Healthy Streets Operation Centre.

Today, the GoA announced a 5 Million dollar grant for both Calgary and Edmonton to help fund our efforts to keep our trains, buses, platforms, and stairwells clean and accessible. We can all agree that safe spaces are clean and well lit.

On a larger scale, the province has also announced a plan to hire and deploy an additional 100 police officers between Calgary and Edmonton, and a plan for $8 Million dollars over 3-years to invest and expand their Police and Crisis Teams (PACT) program. PACT pairs police with mental health professionals from Alberta Health Services to respond to 911 calls where there is a mental health concern.

However, at this time, we have no new announcements related to resources in housing, supervised consumption, drug poisoning prevention, or much-needed shelter spaces in Edmonton. I am hopeful there will be future investment announcements in response to our calls for support this year.

Edmonton has far fewer permanent shelter spaces than Calgary despite having similar population sizes of folks experiencing homelessness or sleeping rough.

For reference, from our last update on Housing and Homelessness Prevention, we know that roughly 1,335 people in Edmonton are sleeping outdoors or in shelter with 622 permanent shelter beds available. In contrast, 795 Calgarians are sleeping rough or in shelter with 1,736 bed spaces available.

We know that we need safe, clean, and supportive public places for people to go in order to redirect folks from seeking shelter in our transit system.

I am concerned that without a holistic and compassionate approach to addressing the root causes of crime and social disorder, a drug crisis, and an affordable housing shortage, we will not meet our long-term strategic goals of building safe and healthy communities. Which is why I will continue to advocate alongside my council colleagues for sustainable and meaningful solutions because I believe we need to invest in people and our communities to get results.

More to come.

(The following text was originally published in the Edmonton Journal on Feb 2, 2023)

Aaron Paquette: Making transit safer in Edmonton takes a co-ordinated approach

Many Edmontonians don’t feel safe taking transit and are frustrated by a perceived lack of action from their City. Discomfort and the fear of violence and disorder have made everyday commuting feel risky.

Great cities have great Transit. This means transit must be safe, convenient, and accessible for everyone. A great user experience is what makes people choose transit; you deserve your commute to be clean, comfortable, and reliable.

While safety on transit is a top priority for the City of Edmonton, there is a disconnect between our priorities and reality. To explain why this is the case, I’ve broken it down to three parts: clarity, communication, and coordination.

(Clarity)

We need clarity on what safety policies and infrastructure are currently in place to better understand the roles our partner agencies — Peace Officers, EPS, Security, and Transit Staff — all play in making safety a lived experience. Do they know the procedures, rules, their role in enforcement, and reporting?

(Communication)

We need better communication. The public should have a clear understanding of the proactive measures the City takes to increase safety on and around transit. We must effectively communicate what behaviours are not tolerated in public spaces and what alternatives we have to offer for those breaking the rules.

(Coordination)

Lastly, we need coordination and support from other levels of government to permanently address the larger and more complex underlying issues of mental health, addictions, and housing. Without meaningful action on these issues, all the City can do is move people around. We’ve seen this, for example, with encampments re-emerging blocks away from their original location because there is nowhere else to go. Their partnership is imperative; we simply do not have the jurisdictional and legal authority to do much else.

Last year, the provincial Justice Minister called on Edmonton to produce a plan to address safety on transit and in the downtown core. We heard this as an expression of support from the provincial government. Here’s what we did:

We worked with local agencies to create a Transit Safety Plan. The Plan utilizes proven strategies to prevent crime and connect people experiencing homelessness (and who use the transit system for shelter) to housing options, along with mental health and addictions support.

We created a Director of Transit Safety position whose sole focus is to implement the Transit Safety Plan and coordinate an integrated, multidisciplinary approach that includes a joint reporting structure to the Edmonton Police Service, the City of Edmonton, and social partners such as Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society. We know that having everyone at the table results in a more efficient and coordinated effort.

We updated our Conduct of Transit Passengers bylaw to give Transit Peace Officers more tools to curb dangerous and unlawful behaviour. This includes a ban on open-air drug use. It is not about penalizing or shaming people for using, but about providing safe options for everyone. Drug residue and discarded equipment like needles are not safe for anyone in our transit facilities.

In 2022 we invested $10.2 million for more Transit Peace Officers (TPOs) to proactively patrol pedways adjacent to LRT stations, and we requested additional patrols by EPS on transit. This funding also allowed ETS Control Centre staff to provide 24/7 coverage and added security guards at 21 transit facilities and LRT stations.

We increased cleaning schedules, reopened all 18 washrooms, and recently approved an additional $3.6 million to support an ongoing citywide public washroom strategy.

Our TPOs work with Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society to support vulnerable Edmontonians with a harm reduction, community safety and well-being approach by actively patrolling stations and connecting people to the services they need.

In the recent budget, Council committed 13.6 Million more toward transit safety resources including hiring and training for 24 more Transit Peace Officers.

(Next Steps)

Cities all over the world are grappling with rising incidents related to safety on Transit. Although Edmonton has one of the highest ridership recovery rates in the country, there is more to do.

Evidence shows that overall safety increases when more people use transit, which results in fewer incidents of crime and disorder. This leaves Edmonton with a paradox of choice. Do we push to increase ridership, which will increase overall safety? Or, do we focus resources on increased safety measures, which will encourage more riders to return to transit? For City Council the answer needs to be both.

We can’t do it alone. We need all levels of government to work together to coordinate resources that address the root causes of social disorder.

In a place as cold as Edmonton, publicly accessible spaces become sites for congregation when governments don’t provide adequate shelter, lack investment in social services, and reject proven harm reduction strategies such as decriminalization and access to supervised consumption as some of the tools for recovery.

Pushing people out of transit to make one space appear “safer” at the cost of another, is not the wholesome, compassionate approach we strive for.

More than 1,000 Albertans lost their lives to overdoses last year. We require compassionate, culturally-aware recovery options. In Edmonton, we need permanently funded shelter beds and supportive housing units.

The provincial government is set to table their budget in the coming weeks. On Monday, Mayor Sohi submitted our City’s funding requests with an emphasis on addressing the provincial responsibility toward the housing and addiction crisis. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it also makes the most economic sense. For every dollar spent, $3 is returned in cost savings.

Investing in people is always a win. We can all safely get on board with that.