The Downtown Community Safety Partnership hopes to set up in the shuttered community connections space at Millennium Library to help marginalized people.
The city’s 2025 preliminary budget cut funding for community connections, which had helped connect people to social services, triggering its Dec. 31 closure.
The partnership has proposed to make use of the space once.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
The city’s 2025 preliminary budget cut funding for community connections triggering the Dec. 31 closure of it’s space in Millennium Library.
“We would staff or position a couple of our (community outreach advocacy resource) workers as best we can within that space and they can meet and connect with community and provide those social navigation services, similar to, I believe, what was in there before,” said executive director Greg Burnett.
Council’s executive policy committee suspended its rules to hear a late, unscheduled presentation of the idea Wednesday afternoon, during a meeting slated to hear budget delegations.
Several delegates pushed councillors to reinstate the community connections space in its previous format, which was staffed by a combination of library employees and community safety hosts. Resuming that service would cost about $628,000 per year.
If the DCSP moved into the space, it would continue helping folks in need connect with supports for housing, addictions treatment and mental health and more, said Burnett.
“This provides us just another avenue to work with the community,” he said.
The city budget proposes to provide $420,000 to DCSP this year. Mayor Scott Gillingham said the proposal to have DCSP take over the library space wouldn’t require additional city funding.
If the plan is approved, DCSP says its team would likely begin working in the space from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday, which could be expanded as needed. Burnett expects the project would last a year, though a trial period from April 1 to May 31, 2025, would help determine the full schedule.
He said staff could also drive people to shelters or hospitals and to get non-emergency medical help, while helping to address safety concerns.
Burnett noted DCSP already works at Millennium Library often, with 472 “interactions” at the site in 2024, including answering calls for help, regular patrols and check-ins.
“The goal here (is) to be partners and really help the community… There really doesn’t have to be much of a shift here, I don’t think. It’s having the doors open (again),” he said.
Prior to the proposal, Gillingham told reporters he looked forward to hearing about the idea.
“The Downtown Community Safety Partnership does provide significant services to some of Winnipeg’s most vulnerable people in the downtown, connecting people to services and making sure that… people (get) the resources and the help that they need,” said Gillingham.
The proposal was shared after dozens of delegates spoke about the city’s budget, with several urging EPC members to reopen Millennium’s community connections space with its previous format.
Joe Curnow, a spokeswoman for Millennium For All, was among that group. Curnow said she was shocked to learn of the new proposal for the site late in the day and questioned why the city didn’t share it earlier.
“It’s a little bit shocking when you have the most successful alternative intervention program being replaced without any kind of public consultation or process. It was ‘walked on,’ it’s not part of the public record,” she said.
Curnow said it’s tough to speak about the proposal’s merits, since many details weren’t readily available to the public. At first glance, she expressed concern that the type of community support provided would be quite different than what was previously offered.
“This proposal is not what anyone has been asking for in terms of library services. Bringing more policing-oriented organizations into the space is not the same as providing trained librarians who provide access to information services,” said Curnow.
Earlier in the EPC meeting, Kirsten Wurmann, a librarian with the Manitoba Library Association, said the original space’s closure was a great loss.
“Community connections closing means that the Millennium Library itself becomes more unsafe,” said Wurmann.
She said the site’s staff had proven their value in de-escalating potential safety incidents.
“The de-escalation, of course, means fewer calls to police and first responders, so that’s savings to the city,” said Wurmann.
Prior to the meeting, Gillingham suggested broader library services would still be readily available to all patrons of Millennium, even if librarians no longer work in the community connections space.
“We still have a library that’s right there… (It’s) 20 feet from the connections space right now. So, library services would still be available to all people,” he said.
Gillingham said decisions on altering the budget, such as approving the DCSP proposal, have yet to be made.
EPC is expected to make final budget recommendations on Friday, while council will cast the final budget vote on Jan. 29.
joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
X: joyanne_pursaga
Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter
Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.
Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.