The City of Calgary is hoping additional investment will help a handful of their Civic Partners with crime prevention and intervention in the downtown.
On Tuesday, the City of Calgary announced $1.9 million in funding for seven Civic Partners: The Calgary Public Library, Contemporary Calgary, Arts Commons, Fort Calgary, MNP Sport Centre, the Telus Convention Centre and Vecova, to help with security and safety in and around facilities.
The program was created through funding made available in the November 2023 budget. The Civic Partners that qualified were in the downtown area and near transit.
“One of the things that civic partners pointed out to us is that they’ve seen increased concerns around security and making sure that people that are coming to visit their locations are having a good experience,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
“So, we took that quite seriously.”
The City said that Civic Partners provide services downtown that offer vibrancy to the area.
“We want to ensure they can focus their resources on providing their essential services,” said Lori Kerr, Manager, Major Partners with the City of Calgary.
According to a City of Calgary media release, the funding will go towards items like new lighting, cameras and more security staff. It will be used to connect vulnerable Calgarians with the resources that they need.
“We are pleased to see The City increasing resources for downtown partners who continue to manage challenging safety issues,” said Calgary Public Library CEO, Sarah Meilleur.
“These additional funds will help us to expand staff training, enhance existing safety tools and increase security staff capacity.”
Mayor Gondek said this grant cash is a further extension of the city’s commitment to addressing public safety in the downtown. She noted the City’s investment in more police, transit and community safety officers, and the combination of outreach teams.
“It’s that combined approach to safety and public well-being that has worked very well,” she said.
“When people are in positions of crisis, the right person is responding to that call. That way, we’re able to deploy our resources in the best way possible.”
