The City of Lloydminster is looking to tackle impacts of what it calls social disorder with the creation of two new teams.
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Andrew DeGruchy, director of public safety, City of Lloydminster, said there’s been little investment by higher levels of government related to these issues.
“The city has seen increasing impacts year after year, with little investment in root causes or systemic solutions from higher levels of government” he said. “To reduce impacts the City of Lloydminster faces, we have continually invested in community-based solutions and programs to promote a safe community.”
According to the city, impacts have been felt across multiple departments as they deal with issues created from addiction trends, mental health crises and homelessness in the community.
During the May 11 Governance and Priorities Committee meeting, the city identified 12 departments already addressing community concerns. To bolster these efforts, the city is now forming two specialized groups: a Clean City Team and an Enforcement and Navigation Unit.
“City administration has recently decided to roll out two additional programs (to) support ongoing community concerns,” said DeGruchy. “In the spring of 2026, city administration intends to roll out two programs, which aim to reduce the impacts of social disorder, promote a clean community and increase the presence of public safety throughout our community.”
Of note, the city will be implementing supplemental RCMP shifts.
“We are doing supplement RCMP shifts,” he said. “Members can sign up for additional patrols to support key areas of the community.”
DeGruchy said there are currently 89 businesses signed up with their AGENT program.
The enforcement and navigation unit will be comprised of a community peace officer and a community support worker. The second will be the clean city team, tasked with cleaning up affected areas.
“We’re implementing a clean city team, which consists of trained city staff who strictly address the consequences of social disorder, including encampment clean ups, littering, needle pickups,” he said. “It should improve the visibility of issues and support the business sector. Over time, sustained efforts to keep the city clean are likely to change long-term behaviours contributing to the beautification of our community.”
Coun. Justin Vance said the city needed to do something to address these ongoing issues.
“I know we talked with the city manager about multiple options that we could have this summer and we needed to do something,” he said. “Administration and council hears everyone and we’re going to try this out. I’m really excited to see where this goes.”
Coun. Charles Gustafson pointed to efforts by the City of Toronto to roll out a non-emergent number for people to call as something the city might consider exploring. DeGruchy said it’s not something the city has looked at but can take back and go over.
The new phone number was something council was interested in exploring as an option.
“I really like that idea of that extra phone number as an option to explore,” said Coun. Michael Diachuk. “It’ll also help with metrics: how many complaints per day.”
In terms of how staffing would look in the two new teams, DeGruchy said it would mean a new peace officer position with the city.
“For the enforcement and navigation team, it would be a new peace officer to support our team,” he said.
Jordan Newton, director of transportation and parks services, said there will be a number of new positions for the clean city team.
“For the clean city team, it’s proposed there will be four new positions. That would be two summer students then a few seasonal staff,” he said.
According to city documents, costs associated with the enforcement and navigation unit that exceed operational allotments will be covered by the city manager reserve. Clean city team costs are expected to be covered through existing parks operational costs.
The city estimates the total cost, including all resources, is approximately $325K.
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