Downtown library space for vulnerable people could close after this year as funding set to run out

A downtown Winnipeg hub that helps vulnerable people access services could shut down after this year.

The City of Winnipeg's draft budget has no money for the Community Connections space past Dec. 31, 2024.

"We looked at that space and how that service relates to our jurisdiction here in Winnipeg, and the decision was made that we need to give that back to the province and allow them to operate social services as a whole," Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), chair of the community services committee, said in an interview.

The Community Connections space opened in the lobby of the Millennium Library in April 2022. Along with the introduction of community safety hosts, it was meant to help address safety concerns at the flagship downtown Winnipeg branch.

People who go to the Community Connections space are met by a greeter. Inside, they can talk with staff trained in crisis intervention and harm reduction. Library staff, crisis workers and community safety hosts are available to provide information.

The space closed, along with the rest of the library, after a fatal stabbing on Dec. 11, 2022. It reopened Oct. 30 last year. 

At a budget meeting on Monday, community services staff said the budget included $1.8 million over the years of 2025-27 to fund safety and security upgrades at Winnipeg libraries. 

"What's not funded is the continuation of the Community Connections space beyond 2024," community services director Cindy Fernandes said during the meeting.

Duncan has said in the past that he felt the lobby of the library was not the best place for the Community Connections space, and he believed the services offered should be funded by the provincial government, which has responsibility for services related to mental health, housing and addictions.

Joe Curnow of the group Millennium 4 All says the space provides low-barrier access to information. Curnow also said they had been told funding for the Community Connections space was included in this year's budget. 

"It's such an incredible loss," she said. "It's unconscionable to me that they would roll back what has been an incredibly innovative and nationally celebrated program just to save a few pennies."

Kirsten Wurmann, speaking for the Manitoba Library Association, said she was shocked to learn funding would run out in 2025.

"[I] was pretty shocked at what I was hearing and I thought I must have got it wrong," Wurmann said. "It feels sneaky. I feel like we didn't read the clues enough."

The 2024 budget includes more than $600,000 for the space.

Duncan said the province won the election on promises to fund social services.

"I look forward to seeing their budget, because I think that with their strong mandate that they were given in the past election, that this will be addressed," he said.

City council will debate the final budget at a meeting on March 20.

The provincial budget is set to be released on April 2. 

Motion to increase permit staff approved

On Wednesday, the property and development committee approved a motion from chair Coun. Sherri Rollins that seeks to increase the number of staff the city intends to add to its permit department each year.

The current draft budget includes a plan to convert 38 temporary permit staff positions into permanent ones over the next four years — 10 per year from now to 2026, and eight in 2027.

Rollins told reporters she worries it's not enough.

"The permitting staff really drive Winnipeg's economy," she said.

"When we're hearing from the public service on the routine that the amount of staffing that we're putting to permitting is just not meeting needs, there are concerns. Permits are complicated and applicants need permitting technicians to be able to be responsive in order to get their jobs done."

If approved by council, Rollins' motion would use the city's permit reserve fund to add more positions, and cancel transfers from the property department to general revenues from this year to 2027.

She hopes to double the number of permanent permit staff added to the department each year.

That proposal needs final approval from council.