Core chasing ‘cleanest neighbourhood’ title

Downtown Winnipeg organizers have set an early New Year’s resolution: make the core the city’s cleanest neighbourhood in 2026.

“Downtown is at a pivotal moment,” Kate Fenske, chief executive of the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone, said during the non-profit’s annual general meeting Thursday.

The BIZ has, once again, clocked more business closures than openings over the past year. The number of closures wasn’t available by end of day; the BIZ noted 30 openings in its annual report.

Downtown Winnipeg logged a net loss of two businesses by the end of 2025’s third quarter.

Fenske said she and staff have held hundreds of meetings over the past year with local companies, politicians and stakeholders while preparing for the BIZ’s new three-year strategy. Safety and cleanliness were members’ top concerns.

“When we’re looking, ‘What can we do at the Downtown BIZ,’ it is looking at the stuff that we can control,” Fenske told reporters post-event.

“It’s focusing more on, ‘How do we make sure that downtown can be the cleanest neighbourhood in the city?’”

Safety must be addressed in collaboration with police, all levels of government and groups like the Downtown Community Safety Partnership, Fenske said. The BIZ plans to launch new events to draw people downtown and, in part, boost safety.

More community clean-ups are promised. The BIZ hosts a large spring gathering — this year boasted 900 registrants — but different offerings will come, Fenske said. Details are still being worked out, she added, noting gatherings will be concentrated in March through May.

BIZ staffers cleaned 1.7 million litres of litter in 2025. It would fill roughly two-thirds of an Olympic swimming pool, BIZ chair Amelia Laidlaw told the assembled crowd Thursday.

The business improvement zone is advocating for portions of downtown parking revenue to be reinvested into downtown infrastructure, like crumbling sidewalks and new garbage cans.

A recently approved Winnipeg parking strategy didn’t include the provision. Fenske said she’ll take her request to upcoming City of Winnipeg budget delegations.

Meantime, crime downtown is trending higher than its five-year average: overall crime is up 5.2 per cent for the 12 months ending in August. Year-over-year, it’s down 1.5 per cent (to 18,812 incidents), according to police data.

“Other” and drug crimes increased during the year-over-year time frame, while violent crime dropped 4.1 per cent.

Downtown requires “immediate action” on crime, toxic drugs and support for vulnerable people to make the area, in part, a place businesses will stay, Fenske said.

The Downtown Community Safety Partnership upped its patrols during the past two summers through government funding. It added more than 30 staff last summer, and resolved 92 per cent of interventions, Laidlaw said in a speech. The DCSP logged 6,918 calls and nearly 9,500 hours on the street.

Manitoba Justice Minister Matt Wiebe and Winnipeg Police Service Chief Gene Bowers were in the AGM event crowd.

Funding for a third summer of increased DCSP patrols isn’t solidified, Fenske said. Mayor Scott Gillingham has proposed a fourth emergency response service, called the Winnipeg Community Crisis Response Service, to cover mental health crises.

“I think what’s really critical is that we’re not doing things in piecemeal,” Fenske said. “Really making sure that we’re doing this work together … that taxpayer dollars are being used efficiently.”

Construction continues at Portage Place, Market Lands and the former Hudson’s Bay flagship store, among other spaces. Roughly 3,000 residential suites are being built or planned downtown, Fenske said.

“We need to make sure that businesses can hang on for the next few years while we wait for this big transformation,” she said.

To draw foot traffic, the BIZ plans to hold a “Downtown’s Got Talent” event and a new dining experience in 2026. Details on the events were scant Thursday.

Downtown’s Got Talent will likely occur at Air Canada Window Park and the Smith Street Plaza — two sites under construction with expected spring finish dates.

“I think any initiative to get people downtown, out and about, interacting with community is a plus,” said Dane Surtees, general manager of the Alt Hotel.

He watches foot traffic increase in tandem with big events like the Grey Cup. Still, there’s a need to improve downtown Winnipeg’s perception, he said.

The BIZ is scaling back some programming, including reducing the frequency of its farmers markets. The staff of 50 and the operating budget are stretched, Fenske said.

The BIZ didn’t increase its levy this year — it’ll tentatively stay 2.69 per cent — because businesses are “still struggling,” she said. (The BIZ raised its levy for the first time in seven years in 2024, up by 0.24 per cent.)

The BIZ is budgeting $3.5 million in levy revenue next year. It projects its total revenues and expenses to amount to $5.59 million each.

It received $3.1 million from the levy and another $3.1 million in grants and sponsorships in 2024. It had a year-end surplus of $41, 497, which was added to the BIZ’s unrestricted funds.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com