Global News Edmonton has reported:

Alberta’s Opposition NDP is proposing a three-part plan to address the release of detainees and offenders in Edmonton’s Chinatown, where community members say the drop-offs are affecting public safety and local businesses. In recent weeks, surveillance video has shown Edmonton police and Alberta corrections officers dropping off people recently released from custody in and around the neighbourhood.

At a news conference Thursday, Edmonton-South West MLA Nathan Ip said the releases were affecting both the community and the people being released. “We’ve been left dealing with the consequences of a system that is failing both the community and the businesses and the people being released,” Ip said.

Members of Edmonton’s Chinese community say people released from custody have been dropped off in Chinatown for years. NDP MLA David Shepherd, the party’s public safety critic, said the video evidence shows the issue has grown. “Now we see this video evidence, we see what is happening in our community, we see how this has expanded and multiplied and it has reached the level that this is a crisis that needs to be addressed,” Shepherd said.

The first part of the NDP proposal calls for an immediate end to releases in Chinatown and elsewhere in Alberta by any law enforcement agency unless a direct connection to services has been arranged in advance and those services are open and accessible. The party also wants expanded reintegration supports for people leaving remand custody, and required reintegration plans before high-risk and vulnerable people are released.

Community member Wai-Ling Lennon said the situation is affecting people’s sense of safety in a neighbourhood that connects her to her heritage. “This is the part of Edmonton that reminds me of my heritage. This is the place where I feel I belong,” Lennon said.

She said community members, particularly seniors, have told her they are afraid to go out after dark. “I have also heard the children, adults, seniors who live outside Chinatown, they do not feel safe to come to Chinatown anymore,” Lennon said.

Karl Miu, with the Edmonton Chinatown and Area Business Association, said the drop-offs are continuing and called on the provincial government to act. Business owners say public safety and the economic revitalization of Chinatown are linked. Entrepreneur Wilson Wong urged the province to work with the community. “We’re asking the province to partner with us as an investment in Alberta’s economy, culture and next generation of entrepreneurs,” Wong said.

In a statement, Arthur Green, press secretary for Alberta’s public safety minister, said the government has met with Chinatown residents and service providers and is addressing their concerns. “Our government has met with Chinatown residents and providers and have taken their concerns seriously, taking concrete steps to make their community safer,” Green said.

Green cited the relocation of the Edmonton Remand Centre from Chinatown and said the province is introducing dedicated system navigators in correctional centres. The navigators are intended to co-ordinate releases and connect people with housing and other supports.

The government said Edmonton’s Navigation and Support Centre, located in Chinatown, has helped more than 12,000 Albertans access supports and made more than 75,000 connections to services. Those connections include affordable housing and identification supports. Green also said the province announced this summer an investment of more than $30 million to add more than 400 treatment, housing and stabilization beds in the Edmonton area.

Green criticized the NDP’s record in government, accusing it of “fearmongering about disorder” after three supervised consumption sites were established in Chinatown while the party was in office. “Albertans don’t need lectures from the NDP about Chinatown’s challenges - in fact, if the NDP had been paying any attention, they would know our government is already taking real action to address them,” Green said.