Downtown Moncton cleanup program's success a catch-22, business group says

A downtown Moncton cleanup program has collected more than 72,000 kilograms of trash this year, says the executive director of the downtown business association. 

Patrick Richard with Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. delivered the figure while presenting the group's 2025 budget to Moncton council on Monday. 

The organization's Enviro Team is funded partly through a levy on downtown businesses and partly by the municipality. 

"It's a catch-22," Richard told reporters about the amount of waste the team has collected from downtown. "It's good that it's going well, but it's also unfortunate that it's going well because that means there's so much waste to pick up."

The team collected waste that included construction material, appliances, and other trash between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31 from around the downtown area. The team also collected 1,600 needles, 248 abandoned shopping carts and 44 bikes, Richard said.

Workers had been homeless

Richard said the team employs eight to 15 people, depending on the season. The core of that team are former clients of Harvest House, which operates one of the homeless shelters in the city. 

Richard said four team members were experiencing homelessness when they were hired, but were later housed in apartments owned by Rising Tide Community Initiatives Inc., a non-profit funded by the city, province and federal government.

"I want to thank Harvest House for their continued collaboration," Richard said. 

The Enviro Team started as a pilot during the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship. The business association extended it into 2023, and last fall council voted to continue funding it with $380,000 in the 2024 municipal budget.

A downtown cleanup program was among the items recommended after a series of meetings about crime and the downtown area in 2022. 

Several city councillors said Monday they believe the program is helping. 

"Your team is really making a difference in the downtown, so thank you very much," Coun. Dave Steeves said to Richard.

Mayor Dawn Arnold said she's heard positive feedback about the team.

"They've been nothing but stellar," Arnold said. 

While the program has helped clean up downtown streets, Richard told reporters the overall situation downtown continues to get worse with shoplifting, vandalism and a growing number of people experiencing homelessness.

There were 399 chronically homeless people in Moncton in August, according to a Human Development Council dashboard that tracks figures for New Brunswick's three largest cities. The number is up sharply from 258 in August 2023.

Chronic homelessness is defined as 180 days or more in the past year without a permanent place to live.

In Saint John, there were 224 chronically homeless people in August this year, while in Fredericton the figure was 192 people.