Business organizations call on federal leaders to support downtowns

Puneeta McBryan, Edmonton Downtown Business Association CEO, speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about their recent advocacy efforts in Ottawa.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Michael Higgins: You were among those in the nation's capital this week to meet with federal politicians. What was your ask?

Puneeta McBryan: We had three main asks. I think most of what we were talking about would not be surprising to Albertans.

We were there to talk about the mental health, addictions, and homelessness crises that are playing out across the country, most prominently manifesting in our nation's downtowns in large cities and mid-sized cities.

We're also there to talk about public safety, safer public spaces, and part of that is what's happening with our bail system and our justice system. We were also there to talk about economic development and the importance of making sure that investment is happening in our downtowns, particularly on the prairies. Particularly because downtowns are such an essential piece of fiscal sustainability for our municipalities.

MH: There's been so much focus here in Alberta this past year on provincial legislation reining in control over what happens in municipalities. Is much of what you're asking not in the lane of the provincial government?

PM: Yes and no. I also did meet with the Government of Alberta today, the relevant ministries, Mental Health and Addictions, Social and Community Services, and Public Safety, and so we're really quite aligned on that front.

I don't think they were particularly surprised to see us going to the federal government. Often when something is playing out in equally dire circumstances across the country, it sort of goes beyond just business as usual for the provinces.

You saw the federal government take really swift action recently with the housing accelerator fund to try and really move the needle on the housing crisis and so our message to the federal government was that these things are equally at crisis level and also require nationwide action.

And I think there's sufficient alignment and similar priorities with the Government of Alberta on these issues so I think it was all around a very productive week.

MH: What is to be made of actions by the Smith government to deal with issues in downtown cores in Edmonton and Calgary, the response to homelessness, heightened enforcement, even changes in approach to mental health and addictions?

PM: I'm certainly no expert but I think our conversations with them have been really encouraging in that they recognize the situation that's playing on our streets, they recognize that the system to date has been woefully inadequate, the investments to date has have been woefully inadequate, that's an understatement.

So it's good to hear from the provincial government that they recognize the really significant gap in the mental health care system. As I think most Albertans know, there are a lot of investments being made in in addiction recovery and so the message that we're trying to bring is that there's the big system changes you're making, but there's a lot of really urgent and pressing issues on the ground in terms of needing outreach on our streets.

We need to make sure that folks on our streets have somewhere to go day to day. And so we feel heard right now.

I don't know exactly what the next steps look like, and obviously heading into a federal election it's even harder to predict what might happen over the next year in terms of federal investment. I can say these conversations don't always feel productive and positive, but this week has felt very much so.

MH: If it is that we come up on an election in under a year's time and there's a change in government, what do you see from across the aisle?

PM: I spent most of my day on Tuesday with Conservative MPs, being from Alberta obviously, and I was really trying to just understand what different government might be thinking about these issues and we did find a lot of alignment there.

I think public safety, in particular, is going to be a real priority for this incoming government and I think there's a real recognition that our downtown business communities have really been dealing with an outsized share of the burden of the gaps in our justice system and how public safety is really not where it should be across the country.

Really good conversations with both Conservative MPs and Liberal MPs and there were some folks in our group that had conversations with the NDP and Bloc as well. So I don't think any of us found any MPs who weren't well aware of these issues, weren't hearing these concerns in all of their own communities, and didn't recognize that whoever's in charge in a year is going to have to really prioritize these things.

MH: Whose court is the ball in now to actually make something happen beyond just building relationships?

PM: The ball is in the Liberal government's court, from our perspective, when it comes to this upcoming budget.

We're really hoping to see something that's aimed at community development in downtowns mental health, addictions, public safety, something between now and the spring from the Liberal government.

As far as anything beyond that, I think we built some really great relationships this time and then the next step would be to meet again with whoever's in power next summer to figure out what it looks like.