Prince Albert’s downtown does not need more people to find it. It needs more reasons for them to stay.
That was one of the clearest messages to come out of Thursday’s Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon, where BMI strategic advisor Chris Rickett used downtown visit data to argue the city core already has strong activity, but is not fully converting that traffic into spending, longer visits, and after-hours energy.
Rickett said downtown recorded 9.4 million visits in 2025 and about 698,000 unique visitors, with much of that activity tied to weekday routines such as work, errands and services. His conclusion was that the issue is not attracting traffic, but finding ways to get more value from people already coming downtown.
“You don’t need to attract more people to your downtown,” Rickett said during the presentation. “You just have to figure out how to get them to stay longer and spend more money.”
Ricketts’ comments landed at a time when the city is already debating the future of Central Avenue. In March, city administration proposed shifting the streetscape plan from the older one-way concept to a two-way design with parallel parking, slightly wider sidewalks, and a public plaza, arguing it would improve access, wayfinding, and business visibility while addressing aging underground infrastructure.
On Thursday, Rickett said he belived two-way traffic would help downtown by slowing vehicles, making businesses easier to see and reducing confusion for visitors. He stressed that was his own view, not an official BMI position, but he spoke at length about how one-way streets can move traffic efficiently while hurting storefront visibility and spontaneous stops.
“Wherever I go in Canada, I go downtown first,” he said. “I pulled on your main street, Central Avenue, and I was like, ‘This is really cool downtown. It’s really good buildings, it’s got the form’ and then I got down and I saw a Ted Matheson menswear sign. I was like, ‘That’s freaking amazing, I’m gonna stop and turn around’ and I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s a one-way street.’
“Then I got confused, because I didn’t know if the side streets were one way as well. I don’t know which way to go so I just went down to the river, and we just kept going. That’s an experience from someone who’s coming into your downtown for the first time. It’s confusing.”
Mayor Bill Powalinsky said Rickett’s comments lined up with the direction already being discussed at City Hall.
“Administration brought an amended proposal forward a meeting or two ago to talk about the two-way traffic,” Powalinsky said after the luncheon. “I’m going to say it’s coincidence and great minds think alike.”
Patty Hughes, chief executive officer of the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, said the data in Rickett’s presentation stood out, especially because it was based on cell phone information showing not just pass-through traffic, but people actually spending time downtown.
“It’s really interesting to see those numbers,” Hughes said. “They do not make business decisions lightly. They make sure they have good data like that.”
Rickett also touched on one of the most difficult issues facing the downtown core when he was asked about homelessness, drugs, and crime. He said Prince Albert is not alone, and argued no city has solved the problem through a single response. Instead, he said, progress depends on coordination between police, social services, housing, mental health and addiction supports, along with efforts to bring more people and more activity back into the core.
“You need more opportunity for success, for people to have things to do,” the questioner said before asking Rickett about solutions. Rickett replied that “no one’s figured it out perfectly” and said the issue is tied to housing, mental health care, enforcement, and the wider economy.
He pointed to downtown Kitchener as one example of a city trying a coordinated approach, with police, business groups, social services and mental health supports sharing information and responding together. But, he said, the deeper answer still comes back to creating opportunity.
“A lot of this is foundational around economic opportunity,” Rickett said. “Yes, we need to look at how we reactivate the site and bring new economic opportunities, and jobs for a lot of these people.”
The downtown discussion was not the formal focus on Thursday’s luncheon, which centred on BMI’s plans for the former pulp mill site. For more on this story, see Saturday’s Daily Herald.
arjun.pillai@paherald.sk.ca
