Grande Prairie AB downtown biz owners face threats, abuses

Original Published on Aug 18, 2022 at 09:53

By Jesse Boily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Elaine Mills owns a small flower shop in downtown Grande Prairie and says she has faced numerous cases of abuse there.

“There have been nine incidents that have happened in the last year,” she recalls. They range from verbal abuse including threats as well as physical abuse, such as having cigarettes flicked in her face and being spat on.

Mills’ business, Elaine’s Unique Plants and Designs, started as a table in the farmers market and has since grown into its own storefront.

Her business — located in the Grande Prairie Farmers Market building for the past four years — has its own entrance from the alley.

A recent incident has her scared for her safety and that of others.

Mills was working alone in her shop, as she usually does, when she heard the entrance door open, but no one came in.  

She went out to find a “very dirty and scary looking” male loitering at the door.  Mills thinks he was intoxicated, and she asked him to leave multiple times. After her requests were ignored and he began to rummage through a garbage bin, she called police.

“These people come, and then they threaten, and they stare at you, and it’s very intimidating,” said Mills.

When police arrived, the person was gone, but Mills gave her report to officers.  She says police believed they knew who she was describing.

She said the police told her the possible person in question was “extremely dangerous,” especially when intoxicated.

Disproportionate impact

“There’s a very small number of individuals that have a disproportionate impact on the incidents that we’re talking about,” said Chris Manuel, City of Grande Prairie director of protective and social services.

Mills says her experiences are not isolated incidents, noting when she talks to other downtown businesses, she hears that they face similar problems.

The Grande Prairie Farmers Market posted on its social media raising concern for the safety of vendors in the downtown core, noting the market has contacted police (bylaw and RCMP) 66 times in the past six years. The market says it has also had three break-ins in that time.

“We cannot count the number of times we have felt unsafe leaving our office to walk to our vehicles because there are individuals smoking glass pipes next to where we park in the parking lot in the middle of the day,” said the market on social media.

“The number of times we have called 911 because there was a disturbance in the alley beside our building, and we were told to turn off the lights and stay hidden in the office.”  

The ongoing incidents moved Mills’ partner, Marc Tyler, to speak to city council.

He said Mills has faced multiple abuses, and he has personally been affected as well.

“I leave early at 5:30 in the morning, and when I get four young men accost me outside of my apartment building asking me for money in a threatening, abusive manner, that’s putting myself in danger,” he said, noting the issue is not only isolated to the downtown area.

Tyler expressed his fear of someone experiencing injury before any action is taken.

He noted that law enforcement has stepped up its patrols in the early mornings but believes there is “a criminal element that travels around in the very early hours of the morning.”

“We should be able to feel safe in our own businesses,” says Mills.

Coun. Dylan Bressey took to social media to share some of council’s initiatives in trying to provide a safer city, including instituting a mobile outreach program, specialized RCMP units, advocating for online reporting with the RCMP, the Opioid Response Task Force, a daytime shelter, and supportive housing.

“This is the area that makes me the most frustrated with other levels of government,” he said on social media. 

“Because there are huge issues and needs in not just Grande Prairie, but in every community in Alberta, and there is no hope of municipalities solving it on our own. 

“These problems won’t be solved without well-functioning health and justice systems.”

City commits dollars to public security unit

In January, the city committed $500,000 to a public security unit as a pilot project with a total cost of $950,000, according to a city document in Dec. 2021.

The unit will be a dedicated security unit dedicated to patrols in priority areas that enforcement and the city believe need extra coverage.

“It’s just an additional tool and kind of a multitude of different strategies being deployed,” says Manuel.

Mills says she has used the mobile outreach number and police, both of which have been helpful.

“We always call, and they’ve been wonderful to help us.”

Mills has tried to implement extra safety measures for herself in her store, including adding lights near her entrance and signage warning that there is video surveillance. Still, some of the lights were recently stolen.

The situation affects sales as well, believes Mills.

She noted many downtown businesses close around 5 p.m. and wonders if more would be open longer hours into the evening if there were less of a fear of downtown.  

“We shouldn’t have to be concerned about people not coming to our businesses because they are scared.”

One of Mills’ patrons noted they are selective of when they go downtown to shop because of safety concerns.

The Grande Prairie Farmers market also held a meeting with the public to address concerns about safety in the downtown area on Monday (Aug. 15).

Since Tyler addressed council Mills noted that the mobile outreach and police have done extra checks on her and her business.

This item reprinted with permission from Town & Country News, Beaverlodge, Alberta