Edmonton city councillors to fund more community-based clean-up in Chinatown
Posted September 2, 2026 5:06 pm.
Business leaders in Chinatown will be getting city funding for community-led clean-up of the streets and sidewalks in the central Edmonton neighbourhood.
On Wednesday, Edmonton city councillors debated whether to invest more in city-led clean-up, including more staff and cleaning equipment.
Ultimately, they chose to support grassroots volunteer community groups that clean streets in Chinatown instead.
But that’s not good enough for those leading the charge to bring new energy to Chinatown.
“Community volunteers come once in a week,” said Sandy Pon with the Chinatown Transformation Collaborative. “Once in a while, that’s great, that shows support. But we need daily clean-up, heavy-duty daily clean-up.”
Earlier this summer, Edmonton police announced an increased officer presence in partnership with social agencies to help fight crime in the city’s core.
WATCH: Edmonton Chinatown business leaders say area improving despite public perception
Pon tells CityNews while having beat officers in Chinatown has been a deterrent to some social disorder, business owners are still dealing with garbage and waste. She says it’s not safe to have volunteers tasked with cleaning it up.
“The defecation and the garbage continue,” she said. “There’s no health sanitation education. They’re just in their runners and a pair of gloves, a garbage bag. That’s not really going to do anything. And plus the fact that we do have drug use, needles, other hazardous material.”
Councillor Keren Tang, who supports council’s chosen direction, reassured Edmontonians that an investment in community-based clean-up is meant to compliment existing city clean-up crews who do heavy-duty washing.
“Can they address some of the gaps being identified, for example, weekend coverage, coordinating donations, coordinating commercial bins, working with unhoused folks to take care of their sites,” said the Ward Karhiio councillor.
Edmontonian Julia Tran, who spoke to council Wednesday, supports more community clean-up in Chinatown, saying they have intel and connections to community that contracted cleaners don’t.
“We need to better coordinate our garbage disposal and that there’s an opportunity to consolidate,” Tran said. “That’s not necessarily intelligence you’d be getting back from a different type of group, and I think it creates a space to imagine other interventions that are possible.”
But Tran hopes both the City of Edmonton and other orders of government will do their part in treating the root causes of social disorder in the area.
“It’s not just about making sure people are following bylaws,” she said. “When the bylaws are set up in a way… where does one defecate if you cannot use a facility? I think these are practical, logistical questions that set up the person where they cannot meet what you’re looking for.”
Councillors will discuss exactly how much to invest into the program when they debate the budget in December.
