A Winnipeg business owner hopes the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ’s pop-up toilets will stop people from urinating on her building, after the pilot project launches on Monday.
Judy Weselowski said people have been urinating outside her used bookstore for 40 years.
“People are lazy and there are not enough public washrooms,” she said.
Just last weekend, she said the problem reached another level when someone attempted to urinate inside her store.
“There was someone who came down the skywalk, she was a little drunk and she proceeded to pull her pants down and wanted to pee on our steps,” she said. “My sister went and escorted her out but she left a trail of urine on the carpet which I had to clean.”
She often cleans the urine from her storefront but said the odour became quite strong in some areas of downtown that aren’t cleaned as frequent.
One man, who Global News chose to not identify, admitted to relieving himself in public because of a lack of public washrooms.
“Sometimes I can’t hold it,” the man said. “I don’t pee myself but I just run against the wall or something.”
He said he’ll take advantage of the pop-up toilet project.
The portable washroom will feature two toilets, one of which will be fully accessible. It will be stationed at the Holy Trinity Church grounds for about four weeks, before it’s relocated to other areas of the city, according to the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ.
The organizations hope the project will start a conversation for permanent public washrooms.