A new initiative aimed at improving public safety and enhancing nightlife is coming to the ByWard Market as the office of the nightlife commissioner continues to seek ways to bolster the downtown district.
As one of the latest attempts to bolster nightlife in the ByWard Market, the nightlife commissioner’s office is launching a night ambassador program to be run and operated by the ByWard Market District Authority (BMDA). The program will be launched with $35,000 from the office of the commissioner and bring a new presence to the Market to assist tourists, visitors and workers overnight.
The funding is part of the 2025 City of Ottawa budget allocated to safety programs within the nightlife commissioner’s office.
The initiative has been inspired by similar programs in other Canadian cities, namely Montreal and Vancouver, nightlife commissioner Mathieu Grondin told Ottawa Compass, and is an extension of the current day ambassador program in the Market.
The ambassadors serve a specific nightlife district — in this case, the ByWard Market — as a “friendly presence”, said Grondin.
“They can help you at the beginning of the night, help you orient, make your recommendations on where to go out, and then later at night, they can act as first-line responders for minor incidents,” he explained. “So for instance, someone might have drank a little bit too much, and a venue wants them out of their venue but security doesn’t feel safe to just kick them out in the public realm.
“The ambassadors can take care of them and put them in a cab to get home safely.”
The ambassador program is meant to improve the perception of community safety and wellbeing within the Market, which can in turn boost the district’s nightlife economy.
Ambassadors will be a liaison between the Ottawa Police and community organizations and the public. They will be practising bystander intervention and de-escalation, help patrons and employees find a safe ride or route home, connect people with emergency and social services, and support people to charge phones and access essential items like first aid and water.
Melanie Anderson, general manager at the BMDA, will be overseeing the initiative. She said she hopes the program will have a “streamlining effect” and be more “eyes on the street”.
Once the program launches on June 27, there will be four ambassadors on shift each night working in pairs — one pair will be stationary at the ByWard Market Square, and the other will be circulating the district.
Part of the ambassadors’ job could be in diverting non-emergent or non-criminal issues away from the OPS satellite station in the Market, Anderson added, so that the police officers are “freed up”. That said, ambassadors can help to connect people to the police as needed.
“They will be kind of addressing and connecting with their other resources in the area,’ said Anderson. “We absolutely don’t want them breaking up fights, but they could be assisting and reporting that to the officers who are already working.”
The training for the ambassadors will connect them with OPS and successful night ambassador programs in other cities to teach them “lessons learned” and firsthand experience. The idea is also to build off the day program, said communications manager Victoria Williston.
“We have a really good day program right now that will seamlessly continue through the evening, and we’re really hoping to continue that good customer service into the evening hours,” she said. “Once we get that going for a bit, we plan on surveying the businesses, seeing how it’s going, and we are going to eventually connect the night ambassadors with the establishments themselves.
“But in the beginning of the pilot phase, we are just letting them get started before we do that connection,” she continued. “But we will be surveying the businesses to see how they feel about it, and really surveying our night ambassadors too, to see where we can improve on the program.”
The BMDA is currently hiring for the program, which will launch in time for Canada Day events.
