Both Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro described their meeting Tuesday about public safety as “productive.”
Sohi said he was able to detail the actions the city has been taking to address violence and crime across Edmonton but specifically in downtown, Chinatown and on transit.
He and ministers Shandro, Jason Luan (Community and Social Services) and Mike Ellis (Mental Health and Addiction) were also able to speak broadly about ways the city can make Edmonton safer and ways the province can make Edmonton safer, Sohi said.
“The meeting with ministers Shandro and Luan and Ellis was very productive,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “We had good conversations about our shared responsibility.
“We have a shared goal… I understand Minister Shandro’s concerns because I have the same concerns,” Sohi said.
In a May 26 letter, Shandro asked Sohi to take immediate action to combat “alarming” levels of crime in downtown, Chinatown and on transit, and share it with the province by June 9.
“Within the next two weeks, I will require a public safety plan from you that will increase police response to this disorder and ensure members of the public can use Edmonton’s public transit safely,” Shandro wrote.
As justice minister, Shandro said he has “a responsibility under the Police Act to ensure the people of Edmonton receive the law enforcement protection they deserve.”
The mayor said Tuesday he’ll continue to focus on finding solutions and there was a lot of common ground, especially on improving community safety, investing in mental health, solving houselessness, addiction recovery and, at the same time, not tolerating crime.
The mayor will submit its public safety plan to the minister, as requested, by June 9.
“This is the start of a very good dialogue.”
Sohi said the ministers also extended an invitation to meet again soon, which the city will certainly accept.
In the wake of Shandro’s letter, Edmonton city councillors highlighted efforts were already underway but also stressed the responsibility of the provincial government in addressing the root causes of social disorder.
“The disorder and crime that we’re seeing in our downtown is directly linked to the lack of provincial investments in ending houselessness, the mental health crisis, drug poisoning and addictions crisis,” Sohi said last week.
“Ever since I was elected, I’ve been raising these issues with the provincial government and have been asking them to step up to help to deal with them. So far, they have neglected these asks,” Sohi continued.
Shandro also described the meeting Tuesday as productive. He said it was a good opportunity for the provincial representatives to listen.
“We were listening to all the work the city manager and city is doing… It was great to hear an overview of what they’re going to be submitting to us.”
He said it was also an opportunity for Luan and Ellis to talk about investments the province has made to mental health, addictions and housing and how all these different areas work together.
“The foundation of these supports has to be law enforcement,” Shandro said. “We have to begin getting law enforcement right.”
He rebutted critics who called his use of the Police Act an “overreach.”
“I disagree there’s anything aggressive about using Section 30 of the Police Act… to make sure there’s a community safety plan in the city and to be able to work with all parties involved and to make sure Edmontonians get the city they deserve,” Shandro said.
He added this route enables the province to “bring some discipline to the work” the city is doing, and “make sure all the parties are at the table.”
Premier Jason Kenney was asked Tuesday about Shandro’s decision to invoke the Police Act in demanding Edmonton city council in particular respond to safety concerns immediately.
“The situation speaks for itself. The numbers have shown, I think, an unprecedented increase in violent crimes in the streets of downtown Edmonton that requires urgent action and that’s why the minister gave that directive,” Kenney said during a health announcement.
“It gives the city and the police commission and the Edmonton Police Service flexibility about how to respond. But it tells them they must come back with an urgent and credible plan.”
Kenney said Shandro is examining similar trends in Calgary.
“They do not appear to be as severe as in downtown Edmonton, but he will take action if he deems it necessary to bring a similar focus to the violent crime situation that we’re seeing in downtown Calgary. But clearly it’s a deeper problem with higher growth in incidents of violent crime in downtown Edmonton and urgent action must be taken.”
There were no specific requests for additional provincial funding, both Sohi and Shandro said.
“That wasn’t necessarily raised in the meeting today,” Shandro said, adding he’d like to see the submission from the city first before discussing more specific supports.
“I did not come to this meeting seeking a firm commitment from the province,” Sohi said. “This was an opportunity to sit down with the ministers and build that relationship and they’re open to meeting with us very, very quickly and we’re going to take them up on that.”
The mayor said he also brought up systemic challenges, how the houseless population in Edmonton has doubled in the last two years, and the need for increased resources to address the addictions crisis, the opioid crisis and more supports for shelter space and supportive housing.
When asked why he didn’t raise these concerns with the city before sending the letter, Shandro said the situation in Edmonton necessitated a quick response.
“Our concerns were that, looking at the statistics here in Edmonton, that the situation had deteriorated quickly, in a matter of months.”
The Downtown Business Association has been asking for help and real solutions on these issues for years, the group’s executive director said Tuesday.
“It’s not like this is a new issue,” Puneeta McBryan told Global News.
“We’ve been having this conversation with the city, with EPS (Edmonton Police Service), with the province for almost two years now, sounding this alarm.
“We’re feeling the provincial government… We’re feeling like there’s a lot of ideology preventing investment in solutions that we know we need, like supportive housing,” she added.
“At the city and EPS level, I frankly don’t even know what the barriers have been. We’ve been asking EPS for increased boots on the ground downtown since I started in this role a year and a half (ago). I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been in the chief’s office and in EPS offices asking for more help.”
Still, McBryan says she’s an eternal optimist and hopes something positive comes from this.
“Some sort of meeting in the middle where we have investments from the province in long-term solutions. And for the province, that includes justice system reform. So we’re actually prosecuting cases where there’s violence, and there are things that right now we’re hearing aren’t being prosecuted. And there’s investments in things like supportive housing.
“And, on the city side, (that) we actually have adequately resourced police and downtown boots on the ground patrolling,” she said.
Mount Royal University political science professor Lori Williams pointed out that Calgary also has problems with violent crime and crime on transit.
“That’s what makes some people think this might be political.”
She said because the UCP has just one MLA in Edmonton, the party may consider the city out of reach, politically.
“It makes them an easy scapegoat or target and it looks like it’s become quite ideological. And that’s not very helpful.”
Williams said there’s been “a particularly bad series of events” and “mistakes or missteps” on Shandro’s part.
“The government is feeling vulnerable on a number of files. We know that Crown prosecutors had threatened to strike because they were so overwhelmed and underfunded that there was a danger of over 3,000 cases having to be dismissed because they had met the time limits and Minister Shandro didn’t know. He claimed there weren’t any cases that were close to the time limits and was corrected on that.”
A government that says it wants to take crime seriously has to then present effective information, plans and funding and know what’s going on, Williams said.
“The demand that somehow or another in two weeks the problem be adequately addressed by the mayor of Edmonton I think is quite unrealistic. So I think it’s been exposed as a bad move on the part of Minister Shandro at this stage in the game.”
“The intention of the series of events was to somehow put the responsibility — or blame even — for what’s been happening on city council in Edmonton and it has boomeranged back on the minister, partly because he had misinformation at various stages along the way, partly because he made a very unreasonable demand that the mayor of Edmonton simply fix it and provide a plan for doing so in two weeks, and thirdly, now it’s come to light that there’s inadequate funding being provided by the province.
“The problem is complex. It’s not something that can be easily handled. Simply having more police officers on the street isn’t by itself going to be effective. There are other co-ordinated efforts that need to take place.”
However, Williams said the meeting between Sohi and Shandro is a good sign and a step that could lead to a more realistic plan and more collaboration.