A new city staff report outlines two new options for removing hazardous debris, such as needles, from parks, but implementing either would require adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city’s budget. operation of Winnipeg.

The report comes months after downtown daycares expressed concerns about discovering dangerous items littering parks, leading their staff to establish their own “inspection process” for removing needles and other objects before children can enter play areas.

City staff already “immediately” remove hazardous debris during gardening, trash collection and other maintenance activities, or after being reported through 311 service requests by the public, which averaged by 103 per year over the past five years, the report said.

Concerns suggest a “proactive monitoring program,” including hiring and deploying city crews to visit parks and inspect playgrounds, benches and gardens, could fill the existing cleaning gap dangerous debris.

The report, which will be discussed at the standing policy committee on community services meeting next week, presents two options for the clean-up.

The first alternative works with two seasonal teams, made up of four members and two trucks, which would monitor the parks daily between April and October, at an estimated cost of $193,704 per year.

The second option would include deploying two teams from April to October in addition to a team from November to March that would conduct surveillance on a “reduced cycle” due to the lower incidence of discarded needles in winter. The report states that the cost of operating this model would be $262,884.

‘We missed the goal’: Gilroy

The report arises from a motion tabled by Council. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel MacIntyre) in February, calling for “proactive cleaning of all needle and gun debris” from city parks and playgrounds in areas that need it most.

But Gilroy told CBC News she was “really disappointed” by the report, adding “there needs to be a lot more clarity,” including whether crews would work “in downtown neighborhoods or if we let’s look at the whole city of Winnipeg.”

“There are just particular parks that we know kids are playing in (where) there are needles, glass, weapons and debris that are not safe,” she said. “That’s where the focus needs to be. The cost is so high and I don’t know where those costs are coming from.”

Gilroy said he expected a “robust report” exploring areas where hazardous debris cleanup is needed and different options for prioritizing it.

“I think we missed the point,” she said.

“One option could be to hire our own staff,” she said, adding that city staff already employed for park maintenance during the summer could prioritize cleaning work ahead of other tasks. .

Another option, she added, was to collaborate with community organizations that are already “on the ground, doing the work” and collecting needles in other areas of the city, like the Community Safety Partnership of downtown Winnipeg.

“We only have one direction to go to town and ask for more money,” she said.

“I have to try to do this with a lot of other priorities, that’s where I struggle, and right now we really need to make sure our parks are safe.”