Moncton bar owner feels St. George Street security cameras are a ‘band-aid solution’

Moncton city council unanimously voted to install 33 security cameras on St. George Street in a bid to address crime in the area.

“The bottom line is, the more eyes on our community, on our city and in our downtown, the more positive it is, so it’s a welcome addition,” Ward 2 Coun. Charles Légèr told Global News on Tuesday.

The cameras will cost $90,000 to install on traffic lights and street lamps along the street that runs parallel to Main Street.

The footage will only be accessed by the RCMP or public safety “if there is a need for it” according to Légèr, and will only be stored for 30 days.

Marc Légèr, who has owned Laundromat Espresso Bar on St. George Street since 2007, calls the cameras a “band-aid solution.”

“St. George Street hasn’t had a real revitalization like we all hoped for,” he said on Tuesday.

“It’s been downhill ever since I opened here 16 years ago.”

Légèr also owns Notre-dame-de-Parkton, a lunch restaurant next to the bar.

“We’ve had issues of violence in my restaurant where one of my employees got assaulted,” he said.

He said he has difficulty recruiting staff to both his bar and his restaurant because of concerns for their personal safety.

Daycare owner Elki Imbeault is happy about the addition of security cameras.

“I think those are important elements to keep people safe. It’s a deterrent by all means,” he said.

He’s so confident that St. George Street is turning a corner that he will be opening a 120-spot daycare in the former UNI bank building.

“It’s more and more vibrant,” he said of Moncton’s downtown.

“The young families need (a new daycare). There’s immigrant workers as well and new people coming to the downtown core.”

He said security hasn’t been an issue at the daycare he operates on nearby Bonaccord Street.

Marc Légèr remains skeptical, and said the only real solution is for the province to do more to address the housing crisis.

“We’re just calling the same services after (they install security cameras) and what are they going to do? The homeless person sleeping in back of the dumpster is still going to be there in two weeks. Nothing is being done for it. It’s not the RCMP or security that’s going to change the poverty issue and drug addiction,” he said.

Charles Légèr acknowledges there’s no “simple solution” to addressing downtown security concerns.

“It’s a step toward creating a more safety-minded approach, but with respect to homelessness, it’s a much larger issue,” he said.

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