The City of Winnipeg is bringing back its community service ambassador program in parks.
This is one way the city plans to redeploy between 300-400 staff who are again left without a job because of the latest closure of city recreational facilities.
These workers will be providing education on the province’s public health orders beginning early next week.
They had been out last year at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic before case numbers came down.
“Our parks are going to be busy over the next little while,” said Jay Shaw, manager of the City of Winnipeg Emergency Operations Centre.
“And we want to make sure people use them safely and that we have those ambassadors out there providing good information about COVID safety.”
The ambassadors don’t hand out tickets, but they can call on bylaw officers or the province to help with enforcement.
“We had a tremendous response last year,” Shaw said. “Lots of great information was shared at a distance.”
Shaw says they will also use redeployed staff to help pick up litter in city parks and public spaces.