City releases resource guide for downtown businesses

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This article was published 07/01/2022 (1535 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Brandon has released a brand-new resource guide to assist downtown businesses with a variety of concerns and ponderings.

Added to the city’s website last month, the “Downtown Business Resource Guide” contains lists of which city staff are available to help downtown businesses or organizations deal with various problems and instructions on how to solve certain issues occurring on private property.

According to Shannon Saltarelli, the city’s community housing and wellness co-ordinator, the guide won’t just be helpful for businesses, but also for downtown residents and city staff as well.

The contents of the guide answer many common questions asked by downtown businesses, meaning city staff will not have to spend as long helping people find answers, and businesses can figure out how to solve their issues more quickly.

Saltarelli said the guide’s development was kicked off earlier in 2021 by Sandy Trudel, the city’s director of economic development, and she ended up inheriting the project when she started her position with the city.

Contributions and feedback were collected from various city departments, the Brandon Downtown Development Corporation and the Brandon Chamber of Commerce.

“The desire for the city is to empower our businesses downtown to be able to deal with situations they encounter in an efficient manner,” Saltarelli said. “We already know you have those questions. We’re going to put the resources in your hands so that you know who to contact. One of the things that happens is that issues are underreported when people don’t know who to contact or how to do it.”

Given that the contents of the guide are based on frequently asked questions from downtown businesses, the Sun asked Saltarelli if dealing with human waste — which earned a mention in the document — is a common occurrence.

“It is,” she said. “That is definitely feedback that has come right out of the downtown area with businesses is human defecation on their property.”

To find proper instructions on how to clean up human waste, Saltarelli said she reached out to Manitoba Health and Prairie Mountain Health but nothing had been created yet, so the groups collaborated to develop some.

“I think it was timely and valuable to issue this document for a number of reasons,” said Barry Cooper, president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce. “The Chamber has always been strong on the idea of the reduction of red tape and confusion around government processes and this really gives [businesses] a one-stop-shop way to approach the things the city can do, what they can help with and who to talk to.”

Cooper confirmed he’s heard from downtown businesses that they are having to deal with problems like disposing of human waste and other issues the guide is intended to provide solutions for.

He’s hopeful the Downtown Wellness and Safety Task Force announced last year by the city will be able to address some of the root causes of these problems.

“We’ve got to help work through some of these challenges,” Cooper said. “We can’t fix things if we can’t measure them, because we don’t know if we’re making an impact.”

The city is currently encouraging people not to download a physical copy of the guide off of its website. That’s because it’s intended to evolve over time, with things being added and subtracted based on suggestions and questions sent in by members of the community.

The guide can be found at brandon.ca/downtown-business-resource-guide.

Anyone with questions, concerns or suggestions relating to the guide should contact Saltarelli by email at s.saltarelli@brandon.ca.

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