Downtown library visits down, unsafe incidents up: report

The number of unsafe incidents rose dramatically at libraries across Winnipeg in the first three months of the year.

A report that examines quarterly Winnipeg Public Library data found that while there were 7.5 per cent fewer visits to Millennium Library from January to March, compared to the same period last year, the number of reported incidents jumped by nearly 70 per cent in the same time frame, city council’s community services committee heard Friday.

Incidents at all branches also rose 38 per cent in the last quarter. The most common incident label was “inappropriate behaviour,” which resulted in 262 reports from January to March, compared to 138 reports in the same period in 2024.

Millennium was the site of 62 per cent of all recorded library incidents.

Attendance at all libraries rose by just under one per cent. The drop in visits at Millennium Library was attributed to a change in opening hours on Sundays and Monday evenings and the closure of the Community Connections space, which provided low-barrier support and directed people to resources in the atrium outside of the library from 2022 until the city cut its funding in the 2025 budget. It closed Dec. 31, 2024.

Coun. Cindy Gilroy said the rise in incidents since then is a result of the closure of Community Connections.

“The numbers tell me that the closure… is really hurting the library,” Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) said after the community services committee meeting.

“I think we know the work that they were doing — to make sure that they were really helping people that were coming into the library who needed a different kind of level of attention than maybe other (users) — was really critical. We’re really feeling that now within library services itself.”

Requests that would have been handled by Community Connections are instead taken by by community crisis workers, who can refer library visitors to support agencies around the city, or library staff at service desks.

Kelly Lemoine, the deputy director of the city’s community services department, said it was “hard to say” whether Community Connection’s closure has affected visitor behaviour.

“Community Connections was there, and people were using it,” she said. “So we just move forward and provide that same service within the library.”

The Downtown Community Safety Partnership moved into the former Community Connections space after proposing the idea to city council’s executive policy committee in January.

When asked about communication between DCSP and library staff, Lemoine said they are connected by real estate only.

“There’s no partnership between the Millennium Library and the organization DSCP,” Lemoine told councillors.

When pitching the idea, DCSP executive director Greg Burnett said they could use the space to “meet and connect with community and provide those social navigation services, similar to, I believe, what was in there before.”

Community services committee chair Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas) said she was under the impression DCSP and the library would work in partnership. She planned to discuss the issue with both groups.

“To hear the public administration stating that it’s not a partnership, and they have not reached out to DCSP, it is quite concerning,” she said.

“Because we’re all here trying to help that one person that’s coming into the library, whether that is through intoxication or needing library services.”

While overall visitation varied between librariesy, one branch had a particularly high jump in visitors.

The Sargent Avenue Harvey Smith Library had a 77 per cent increase in visits in the first three months of the year compred to the same time frame in 2024, which was attributed to a slight expansion of service hours and a focus on early literacy and health programming.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca