Lloydminster is launching two new programs this summer to address the mounting cost of homelessness, addiction, and social disorder in the city – and administration is putting a blunt number on what inaction has cost so far.
The Enforcement and Navigation Unit and the Clean City Team were presented to council’s Governance and Priorities Committee Monday. Combined, the programs carry an estimated price tag of $325,000.
Andrew DeGruchy, the Lloydminster’s manager of emergency management, told council the programs are a response to years of growing pressure on city departments – pressure he said isn’t being met by other levels of government.
“The City has seen increasing impacts year after year with little investment in root causes or systemic solutions from higher levels of government,” DeGruchy said.
He also put a dollar figure on what the city is already spending. When asked by Coun. Michele Charles Gustafson how much the problem costs across 11 departments currently responding to social disorder, DeGruchy didn’t hesitate.
“We put it right around the $3 million mark of what the city is incurring as a result of our responses,” he said.
That $3 million isn’t new money – it’s absorbed across existing budgets in parks, roads, enforcement, fire, facilities, and more. The new $325,000 is dedicated funding intended to reduce that spread.
How the city’s programs work
The Enforcement and Navigation Unit pairs a net new community peace officer with a contracted social worker or community support worker. The unit will proactively patrol high-impact areas and connect people to recovery services – operating similarly to a Police and Crisis Team, but with a broader scope.
The Clean City Team adds four seasonal positions through Parks Services – two summer students and two seasonal workers employed through October. Their sole focus will be encampment cleanups, needle pickup, graffiti removal, and pressure washing in hotspot areas across the city.
Costs for the navigation unit will draw on the Lloydminster Manager Reserve. The Clean City Team is expected to fit within existing parks operational budgets.
Implementation is expected to roll out in early summer.
City Council reaction
Coun. Justin Vance said the city had no choice but to act.
“When issues become this bad and we get one, two emails a week from business owners… we as a city have to do something,” Vance said.
Mayor Gerald Aalbers echoed that sentiment while also putting responsibility back on the community.
“This clearly is a demonstration that we are hearing businesses and residents,” Aalbers said, adding that businesses also have obligations – including signing up for the Agent Program, which allows enforcement to act on private property without the owner present after hours.
To date, 89 businesses have enrolled in the Agent Program.
Charles Gustafson pushed administration on accountability, asking what metrics would determine success. DeGruchy acknowledged no single number would capture it, but said reduced complaints from businesses and increased connections to recovery services would be key indicators.
Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbrown of the RCMP’s General Investigative Section, who presented earlier in the meeting, told council the force has seen a modest decrease in street-level activity so far this spring compared to last year – though he cautioned that trend ebbs and flows with weather and other factors.
Read more: Lloydminster council: homelessness, fire on agenda
So the city will clean up encampments ?.