A warm handoff: Edmonton Chinatown hunts for solutions after prisoner drop-offs, disorder
Posted October 8, 2026 10:15 pm.
There was a cold, hard truth that echoed at a Chinatown restaurant Thursday night around the news of prisoner drop offs inside the neighbourhood revealed last month.
“(It) has been going on for years and years,” one man told the restaurant packed with listeners.
This was a town hall put on by business leaders and the Edmonton Chinatown Safety Council looking for solutions rather than looking for someone to blame.
City Councillors Anne Stevenson and Ashley Salvador attended, along with NDP MLA’s Janis Irwin and David Shepherd, and social service operators Boyle Street and Bissell Centre.
Sandy Pon, the Chinatown Safety Council co-lead said the UCP government was sent multiple invites but did not get a response.
“We’re not asking for any specific handouts,” said Pon. “We are asking how we can work together so the homeless population will decrease, the crime, and all the disorder will diminish. This way, Chinatown can thrive.”
The town hall heard detainee drop offs continue to happen as recently as last week, and in other communities like Lethbridge and Peace River. Councillor Stevenson telling the crowd it’s happening partly because the city has eight adult facilities with 3,400 total inmates — one of the highest per capita in Canada. This on top of Chinatown being home to multiple social service centres like Hope Mission’s Herb Jamieson Centre.
Both Pon and Ben Lui, whose company owns Pacific Place mall, mentioned something they would like to see so released prisoners can get help in Chinatown: A warm hand-off.
“You can not just drop them off on the street and then leave them in limbo,” said Lui. “Otherwise, they’re going back to that survival mode and going back into incarceration or other crimes.”
Two weeks ago, Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis also described a warm hand-off as something he would like to see while denouncing the drop offs. He blamed the September releases as “human error” and promised to meet with Corrections so it doesn’t happen again.
But the cry for help continues in Chinatown.
“Community members are burning out,” Pon said. “And we see that as a fact. If they can’t recruit workers, your problem is just going to get bigger.”
