Crime, public safety, and a new homeless shelter dominated discussion as voters gathered at Carlton Comprehensive Public High School on Wednesday to hear from Prince Albert’s three mayoral candidates.
Incumbent Greg Dionne and challengers Bill Powalinsky and Brittany Marie Smith spent 30 minutes answering questions chosen by the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce, which organized the event. The next half hour was dedicated to curated questions from the floor.
During his opening remarks, Dionne said he supports building a new homeless shelter, but would not vote to open one in a neighbourhood where residents opposed it.
“I support the neighbourhoods,” Dionne told attendees. “If they don’t want a shelter in their area, I totally understand, and I will not support it.”
Plans to open a new shelter hit a road block on Oct. 7 when a motion to approve a new bylaw allowing the shelter to open at 420 – 18th Street West failed to get a seconder. That failure meant a public hearing on the shelter scheduled for the same night was scrapped.
Dionne said the City is still working hard to find a location for a shelter. He told attendees they had identified “a couple locations” but were told by other levels of government it would be too expensive to bring services in.
He said that might have to change, since those locations appeared to be the only remaining options.
Candidates were asked of their views on a new shelter for the third question of the night. During his allotted time, Powalinsky said “fear of the unknown” was holding up the creation of a new homeless shelter.
He said there was a lot of speculation about how a shelter would impact local neighbourhoods, and called on the City to provide evidence showing well-managed and appropriately-sized shelter could reduce crime, and increase access to services like mental health treatments.
However, he added that council needs to follow the lead of other cities, like Regina, which voted in favour of a new permanent emergency shelter in September after the previous location was voted down in June.
“At the end of the day, City Council needs to have the courage to say ‘we are going to make a decision,” Powalinsky said. “Regina went through that, and much kudos to them. They took a chance and arrived at a decision that I feel was well thought out and well processed and hopefully will work for them as well. We can learn from other jurisdictions.”
Marie Smith said she attended the public consultations for the proposed 18th Street location and said security and bylaw needs to be more involved in the discussion. She said safety concerns seemed to be an issue for residents, and without addressing those concerns it would be hard to settle on a location.
“We need everyone to feel safe, and they weren’t satisfied with the Y’s level of security,” Marie Smith said. “That’s what I heard (during consultations), so therefore we would have to likely increase (efforts) from the City side to make sure everyone feels safe.”
The YWCA currently runs a temporary 45-bed shelter called Stepping Stones at the Prince Albert Exhibition grounds, along with a permanent 12-bed shelter at My Place. Stepping Stones typically uses a first-come, first-serve system, but demand is so high the YWCA announced it would start use a triage system in mid-October.
The most recent Point-in-Time Count (PiT) from 2022 showed at least 120 homeless residents in Prince Albert. Results from the 2024 PiT Count are not yet available.
Nationally coordinated PiT Counts conducted between March 2020 and December 2022 showed a 20 per cent increase in homelessness across Canada when compared to data from 2018.
Crime solutions: Powalinsky calls for ‘eye in the sky’ to help police respond to calls, Dionne vows to advocate for bail reform and tougher sentences
Crime and public safety were the other main issues candidates mentioned during the forum. According to a Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce survey, crime and public safety were listed as a top concern for voters.
Powalinsky had the first chance to respond and said the City can provide police with better technology to improve service and response time. That would include providing police with an “eye in the sky”, a manned drone that operates 24 hours a day.
“An eye in the sky can spot things from the air that you can’t see happening on the ground,” Powalinsky said. “That doesn’t help us with the shoplifting. That doesn’t help us with the other petty crimes, but it certainly helps us respond to crime as it’s happening in real time. It gives people a chance for a better response.”
Marie Smith, who works as a realtor in Prince Albert, said she’s had some success installing security cameras on properties, which has led to some success. However, she said the City needs to go a step further and have people watching the feed from those cameras in real time.
“We’ve tried it (cameras). It has works, but cameras aren’t enough. We need to put live camera watchers behind them and live camera watching costs about $15/hr,” she said. “With that we’ll get a response.”
Marie Smith said the security camera option would be tested in high risk areas first before being rolled out elsewhere. She also said the City would need an increased bylaw presence to answer the calls.
During his opening remarks, Dionne said dealing with crime was one of his biggest priorities. He said he’s visited Ottawa and Regina to complain about “catch and release” policies and advocate for tougher penalties and bail reform. He promised to continue those efforts if re-elected.
“We have a police department—men and women—who are doing a great job but they (criminals) seem to get out quicker than it takes us to put them in,” Dionne said. “We have to solve that.”
According to the most recent Prince Albert Police Service data, total violent crime and total property crime are both slightly down compared to 2023.
As of August 2024, there were 1,204 reported incidents of violent crime, and 2,431 reported incidents of property crime in 2024. That’s down from 1,417 violent crimes and 2,699 property crimes reported by the same time in 2023.
In 2023, Prince Albert ranked third in violent crime rates among cities with more than 10,000 people, and eighth in property crime rates, according to the Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index (CSI).
Candidates also answered questions about redeveloping downtown, reconciliation, economic development, and how they would avoid service disruptions like those caused when city workers went on strike in 2023, among others.
Wednesday’s forum was organized by the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce. A complete replay of the forum is available on the Chamber’s Facebook page.
The Chamber has also organized a Ward Candidates Forum for Friday, Nov. 1 starting at 6:30 p.m. at Carlton.
The municipal election is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 13. Advance polls run Nov. 1-2 at the Alfred Jenkins Field House, and Nov. 8-9 at the Exhibition Grounds. Polls are open from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 1 and Nov. 8, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 2 and Nov. 9.
