{"id":168443,"date":"2026-08-14T21:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/168443\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T21:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:07:14","slug":"downtown-edmonton-businesses-paying-out-of-pocket-for-security-amid-public-safety-concerns-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/168443\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Edmonton businesses paying out-of-pocket for security amid public safety concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Business owners in downtown Edmonton are urging governments to help with public safety issues, noting they’re already dealing with costs for additional security measures and the concerns of their customers.<\/p>\n

“The responsibility should not be on the business owner to have security in place to prevent those things from happening,” Cheryll Watson, chair of the Downtown Revitalization Coalition, said about businesses having to cover costs incurred by vandalism, break-ins and security.<\/p>\n

Watson was speaking to the media Thursday at an event that involved her organization and the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

The event brought together business leaders and MP Ruby Sahota, the federal secretary of state for combatting crime, to discuss public safety in Edmonton and its impact on local businesses and economic growth.<\/p>\n

“We have called on Edmonton Police Services to have more patrols downtown and we are seeing positive changes because of that,” Watson said.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the coalition and local businesses say they need more help.<\/p>\n

Downtown businesses\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leslie Boss, owner of Crown & Ember, a salon near 102nd Avenue and 106th Street, said her business has been broken into twice in the past year.<\/p>\n

The salon has cameras, but Boss said the business has also had to take other steps to protect staff and clients, including locking the doors in the evenings.<\/p>\n

“We don’t have a lot of expendable money to put towards additional services as far as security and stuff like that goes,” Boss said.<\/p>\n

\"Leslie<\/p>\n

During one break-in, the front door was forced open. During the second, a front window was smashed and the business had to replace the window, along with a laptop and speaker that were stolen.<\/p>\n

Boss estimated she has spent about $2,000 on cameras, replacing the door, and stolen items.<\/p>\n

She said the challenges extend beyond break-ins.<\/p>\n

“There’s definitely been a little bit more, you know, drug use and that kind of thing around here in downtown,” Boss said. “And I know that it’s everywhere, but it seems to be getting worse.”<\/p>\n

Boss said she sees people using drugs outside the business.<\/p>\n

“There’s some days where, you know, like we service a lot of women and they generally don’t want to come out,” she said.<\/p>\n

Boss said she would like to see more police presence downtown and more support for people struggling with addictions and other social issues.<\/p>\n

Andrea Nguyen, owner of nearby Kumi Nails, said she has also seen the effects of crime on customers and businesses.<\/p>\n

Nguyen said a recent client was at the salon for about an hour, leaving around 4 p.m. When the client returned to the vehicle, a side window had been smashed and items were stolen.<\/p>\n

“That’s definitely frightening because it’s happening during the day now versus before,” Nguyen said.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea<\/p>\n

Nguyen said her business has been broken into four times over about 14 years, with the challenges becoming more noticeable in recent years.<\/p>\n

She said Kumi Nails now keeps its doors locked and recently installed a floodlight outside the business in an effort to deter break-ins.<\/p>\n

Issue bigger than enforcement<\/p>\n

Sahota said public safety concerns in downtowns are not unique to Edmonton, but acknowledged that different levels of government have different responsibilities.<\/p>\n

She said governments need to work together on public safety, while also ensuring resources are available for mental health, addictions and housing.<\/p>\n

“We want to address this through, once again, the legislative changes that we’ve made, but also making sure that resources are there for mental health addictions, for housing,” Sahota said.<\/p>\n

Doug Griffiths, president of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, said provincial and municipal governments recognize the need to “deal with mental health issues and drug addiction issues and homeless issues, unhoused issues.”<\/p>\n

He added that they’re advocating for other measures to bring more people downtown.<\/p>\n

“We need cleanliness, we need beautification, we need activity,” he said.<\/p>\n

“A deteriorating downtown is like having a sick patient. If you don’t fix that, then the infection spreads.”<\/p>\n

Boss said she hopes increased police presence and more support for people experiencing addiction and other struggles can help improve the situation.<\/p>\n

“Probably more police presence,” she said. “And I don’t know what the option is to help maybe more supports for these types of people so that there are less of them, you know, kind of going through these struggles and resorting to drugs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business owners in downtown Edmonton are urging governments to help with public safety issues, noting they’re already dealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[53976,4641,53978,12542,52,4331,830,53977,7467,10957],"class_list":["post-168443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-additional-security-measures","tag-businesses","tag-cheryll-watson","tag-downtown-edmonton","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-chamber-of-commerce","tag-edmonton-police","tag-nicole-healey","tag-police-presence","tag-public-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}