Mayor announces $1M pilot project to hire private security for the ByWard Market

The City of Ottawa is spending $1 million over two years to boost the security presence in the ByWard Market. CTV’s Leah Larocque reports.

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has announced a plan to spend $1 million in new funding over two years to hire private security guards for the ByWard Market.

Sutcliffe made the announcement Thursday as part of his “Public Safety Action Plan,” which touted spending already announced in the draft 2026 budget for police, firefighters and paramedics, including funding for 21 new sworn police officers, 23 new paramedics, and new breathing devices for firefighters. The mayor’s news conference at city hall also reiterated a $700,000 plan to expand the non-police ANCHOR program in Centretown.

The pilot project in the ByWard Market is new, however. Sutcliffe said it came about after discussions with small business owners and Ottawa’s tourism industry.

“This pilot project will see private security fill some of the gaps in service hours and at key locations in the market,” Sutcliffe said. “We will work closely with the ByWard Market District Authority and the tourism industry because we know our investment goes further when we pool our resources and work together on solutions.”

Plan would ‘pool resources’

The ByWard Market District Authority says that it employs private security to patrol the Market Hall building and its immediate surrounding area and that many businesses also employ private security.

Sutcliffe said the goal of the pilot project is to help supplement those efforts.

“We want to work with our partners at the ByWard Market District Authority and some of the private business in the market that also use private security because there’s the potential for us to pool our resources and have more effective results,” he said. “There are a lot of people investing in security in the market right now, so we can work together and get better results.”

The pilot project would spend $500,000 per year over two years. More details are expected “in the coming months,” Sutcliffe said. According to a news release from the City of Ottawa, the $500,000 a year will come from revenues raised through the Municipal Accomodation Tax, which is set to rise to 6 per cent next year.

Private security a part of the picture: Stubbs

The announcement comes more than a year since the Ottawa Police Service opened an office in the Rideau Centre shopping mall and launched a ByWard Market strategy focused on “hot spots” for crime.

Ottawa Police Chief Eric Stubbs says private security is part of the picture when it comes to safety in the ByWard Market.

“This requires not just the police to ensure that. We’re a big player there; it’s a lane that we have to fill, but working with the BIA, working with the health centres, working with private security, working with the business owners, working with city hall and their programs that they have, that’s what’s going to get it done down there,” he said.

Stubbs said the Ottawa Police Service is adding 14 more officers into the downtown core to do proactive work in Centretown and the ByWard Market. These 14 new officers will begin working with the neighbourhood resource team on Dec. 15.

“We’re not absconding from ByWard Market and saying, ‘Great, they got that. We can go elsewhere,’” he said. “There’s different layers that will equate to ‘it’s safer in the ByWard Market, it’s safer in the downtown core’ and this private security will add to that.”

Sutcliffe also said the 2026 budget includes $400,000 for traffic calming measures at the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive to improve pedestrian safety.

“Now is not the time to cut back on emergency services,” Sutcliffe said. “Now is the time to invest in public safety.”

Ottawa City Council will vote to finalize the 2026 budget on Dec. 10.

District Authority to run program

ByWard Market District Authority manager of communications, Victoria Williston, joined Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa at Work with Kristy Cameron on Thursday. She says the district authority will oversee and run the program.

“I can say that this will be a day and a night endeavor, but the times in which they start in the morning specifically, those are still being worked out.”

Williston also says the security guards will be patrolling the district.

“We do have security guards already within our building, but that is more of a sort of retail focused type of security, where this one will be more of a holistic, sort of people-centered approach … that de-escalation and care inform trauma informed approach to safety in the district.”

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Leah Larocque

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