The new toilet facilities, located on the corner of Whyte Avenue and Gateway Boulevard, will be opening on June 29th.
These facilities are part of a $536,000 investment made by City Council to increase the number of safe and publicly accessible washroom facilities.
“We have over 4 million visitors a year to the Old Strathcona area and with our festivals, our farmers market and all our unique businesses and shops,” says Murray Davison, Executive Director of the Old Strathcona Business Association.
“There’s a big draw of people and there’s a lack of public facilities.”
The toilets will be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and since they were built with full glass walls, the bathrooms will be easily monitored by security.
There are 3 women’s stalls, 1 men’s stall, 2 indoor urinals, diaper changing stations and 2 permanent outdoor urinals. The washrooms are also wheelchair accessible.
“It’s to help support the overflow of our public and take some of the pressure off the business owners who are trying to serve their patrons and other people are using their facilities, as well as there’s some vulnerable people in the area to have a safe and clean place to go to the washroom,” says Davison.
Councillor Ben Henderson says it was an elemental need the city hadn’t been providing.
“We got away with a long time; we depended very much on private business to do what is ultimately a public service,” Henderson says.
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“For the sake of the neighbourhood, for the sake of public hygiene, I think these are the kinds of things the city has to step up and do.”
A pilot project for the public toilets was first introduced in Old Strathcona in 2007. Portable urinals were trucked in between Thursday and Sunday every week, to see if there was a demand for facilities. Since the pilot was successful the city decided to set up permanent washrooms.
“This is just a start, it’s a step in the right direction and we can see a few more in other locations,” says Henderson.
Jasper Avenue is currently running their own toilet pilot with facilities installed at seven different location.
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