ByWard Market businesses will meet with Ottawa’s nightlife commissioner next week to ask questions and express concerns about the new night ambassador program that is slated to start later this month.
Last week, the City of Ottawa and ByWard Market District Authority (BMDA) announced $35,000 in funding from the city to support teams of “night ambassadors,” whose role is to improve safety in the ByWard Market on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m., starting June 27 until Oct. 31.
According to the BMDA’s job posting for the role, the responsibilities of the night ambassadors include passing out water, snacks and phone chargers; helping vulnerable and intoxicated people; aiding in minor emergencies; and de-escalating disruptive and unsafe situations.
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Alex Sirois, managing partner of Ottawa Venues, the company that operates Lowertown Brewery and Sky Lounge on York Street, said the Market already feels safer and this initiative will continue that trend.
“Anything that makes people feel more at ease as they’re leaving or arriving is going to be helpful,” he said. “As a whole, I think it helps the Market and helps people feel super-safe down here. The Market is getting busier and it’s feeling safer.
“We’re seeing a lot of changes that are positively affecting the Market and we’re very happy about it. We’re hoping to keep moving along and moving forward with all the positive changes.”
Nasr Nasr, owner of Juice Dudez, which has a location on Clarence Street, also said he is behind the program. “I feel like making the ByWard Market a safer and more welcoming place will definitely attract more people to come here and, of course, visit Juice Dudez.
“I’m all about hospitality. The fact that there’s going to be people out there handing out water and charging their phones, it means a lot to me … Providing people (with) the unexpected is something that really resonates with me,” Nasr said.
Stacie Sivyer, owner of The Rainbow Bistro, said she’s happy that there’s a spotlight being cast on the needs of the Market but added that she’s concerned that the choice of location for the city’s pilot program will reinforce unwanted stereotypes.
“By having it in the ByWard Market, it’s reinforcing the stereotype that the Market is dangerous. It would have been nice to also see this being applied to other busy tourist drinking areas,” Sivyer told OBJ on Tuesday.
Having “more eyes on the street by good Samaritans” will always be a good thing, Sivyer said, adding that some people might feel more comfortable approaching the night ambassadors than law enforcement.
But Sivyer said she isn’t sure how the program will affect her business. “We don’t typically have (issues with violence) at the Rainbow, but it is nice to know that when our patrons are leaving the venue … that they’ll get to all those places more safely.”
Sivyer also said she has concerns about the safety of the ambassadors themselves.
“De-escalating and practising bystander intervention might put people in harm’s way … I would just be concerned for somebody who has some first aid (training) and is being paid $25 an hour,” she said, adding there must be liability concerns.
Victoria Williston, the BMDA’s manager of communications, told OBJ that the safety of staff is at the forefront of the pilot project as ambassadors may come face-to-face with dangerous or high-risk situations.
“We want to make sure that they are safe and that they’re feeling safe. Through the training that they’re going to get with Good Night Out as well as Crewmed, those training techniques will really assist those people on the ground on how to protect themselves in those situations,” Williston said.
She added that the BMDA is going to have surplus staff so that there will be “safety in numbers” and the rotation of staff will allow for breaks.
“We’re going to hire more night ambassadors than we need because we do want them rotating. Some nights might be tough and you don’t want people to have to work back-to-back shifts if they’ve experienced something that was a little tougher,” she said.
Nightlife commissioner Mathieu Grondin said the night ambassadors will have a direct line of contact with emergency services in the area if a high-risk situation arises. “Their role is not to get involved in anything that turns violent … If anything turns violent, they’re going to reach out to police,” Grondin said.
Ensuring a good night out
Once the night ambassadors get used to the role, Williston said they’ll start being a direct line of contact with businesses.
“The plan is, further along through the season, to start connecting the night ambassadors with the business owners and with those security teams that those establishments have,” she said.
Two ambassadors will walk the streets while another two will be at a kiosk at the corner of York Street and ByWard Market Square, according to Grondin.
He said the program was inspired by similar projects in other cities, including the Granville Street Team launched by Good Night Out Vancouver, a B.C. non-profit organization committed to preventing and responding to sexual harassment and sexual violence.
As the nightlife council looks for ways to make nightlife in the city safer, he said he wanted to test this kind of program in the capital and, as a “main nightlife hub,” the ByWard Market was the best place to do it.
“This is a pilot we’re going to learn from this year, and we’ll see if it’s feasible to extend it to other parts of the city at some point,” the nightlife commissioner said.
An extension of the program, either to more days of the week or to other places in the city, may be in the cards if the data collected from the pilot program shows a need for it.
“We’ll look at the data. How many incidents have they been responding (to)? What was the reaction from participants and also staff? Because this program also caters to nightlife workers … How much is the service being used?” Grondin said.
He added that the extension of the program might also be facilitated if other groups showed interest in funding it.
Williston said the choice of location was also influenced by the success of the BMDA’s “market ambassador” program, a similar program that runs morning until evening, seven days a week.
Melanie Anderson, general manager at the BMDA, said the market ambassador program existed in some capacity before the ByWard Market BIA and Ottawa Markets amalgamated in June 2023. The program supports visitors with information about the Market, helps with vendor set-ups and connects with businesses.
While many responsibilities overlap between the market and night ambassador roles, the difference is in the training, Williston said.
“The daytime (market ambassadors) don’t have bystander intervention training. They do have light de-escalation training, but it’s not as intensive as the night ambassadors would have it. (They) mostly just help with the public market component … to show that ByWard is a vibrant place,” she said.
