Reported incidents of City of St. Albert employees being harassed, abused, or even physically assaulted while on the job have been trending upwards in recent years, a new report to council explains.
In 2023 there were 165 such reported incidents, or one every 2.2 days of the year, the report shows, which represented a nearly 45 per cent increase compared to the 114 incidents reported in 2022.
The 2022 total was a 20 per cent increase over the 95 incidents reported in 2021, which itself was a 116 per cent increase compared to 2020.
Denise Isbister, a health and safety manager with the city who authored the report, wrote that these figures include staff members reporting that they were harassed, abused, assaulted, or even the target of “lewd behaviour.”
“The departments experiencing the largest number of the above incidents include recreation and parks followed by public operations,” Isbister wrote.
The report doesn't detail any specific incidents. Shawn O'Connor, the city's acting director of human resources and safety, said in an email that for privacy and confidentially reasons, the city couldn't comment further on any specific cases or say whether or not any staff members have resigned as a result of such an incident. The city also can't say whether or not there have been cases where staff members have had to go on medical leave as a result of being a victim of assault or abuse.
Mayor Cathy Heron said she was disappointed to see these numbers, adding that city employees are just trying to serve their community.
“The people that work at the Mike Mitchell [Recycling Centre], or Fountain Park Pool, or the tax department in St. Albert are doing their job, going to work every day,” she said. “They just want to do right by their community, teach your kids how to swim or whatever, and they don't deserve that kind of behaviour.”
Heron added that she thinks there's been political leaders who have, in recent years, made “people feel they have the right to disrespect people who are just doing their job” in local government, which might explain why the number of incidents is trending higher.
“I don't want to blame everything on Donald Trump in the United States, but I feel like over the last four or five years there's been leadership examples of allowing that kind of behaviour and making it permissible,” she said. “I think that might be part of a bit of a post-COVID 19 hangover as well.”
“If you look around city hall sometimes you'll notice there's barriers up, and the barriers went up mostly for sneezing and coughing to prevent viruses, but a lot of them have remained up just to keep a distance between the public and the workforce of city hall.”
Coun. Wes Brodhead, who said he had requested this data from administration after having a conversation with an employee at the Mike Mitchell Recycling Centre who said working there can be a bit “dicey” at times, said 165 incidents of harassment, abuse, or assault in one year is unacceptable.
“165 is 165 too many,” Brodhead said. “I think there are those in society who think that the harassment of public officials or city employees is fair game [because] they're being supported by civic tax dollars... but that's not right.”
“They have every right to be treated with dignity and respect and in a safe manner just like everybody else.”
Isbister's report explains that the city has a number of procedures in place to have staff trained and prepared for situations where they're harassed by a member of the public, and there's also a process in place for what staff need to do after an incident, but she wrote that these procedures may not be enough.
“Recurrence of incidents (multiple investigations) suggests that previous controls may be insufficient and additional corrective actions and additional controls may [be necessary],” Isbister wrote. “The city continues to evaluate additional corrective measures/controls to include... permanent resourcing through dedicated security resources [and] consultant budget; modifying service hours or working alone policies; additional signage; surveillance equipment; [and] security patrols.”
“Additional [measures] may require additional budget/capital charters and would be advanced by administration for council approval as part of the budget process.”
Brodhead said he was concerned that any potential actions the city and council could take to try and address the level of harassment being experienced by city staff would be reactive measures, rather than proactive.
“You can do anything you want in terms of [reactive measures like additional security] but even if everything works the way it's supposed to, it's all over and people are injured and hurt and somebody's still getting victimized,” he said, adding that on the other hand, St. Albert's elected council might not have enough of a cultural influence, as compared to federal politicians for example, to make a difference in the minds of potential perpetrators.
“We try to do better, and I think if our leaders would model that then perhaps we could turn the tide on what we hear on the news every day,” he said. “The only thing that I can really control is how I respond and how I act and how I speak, so I'm going to act with ethics, I'm going to speak with dignity, and treat people with dignity and respect and try to avoid at all costs... attacking my opponent rather than speaking of the issues.”
“I think the more people do that, then the temperature around the rhetoric within the political environment will go away.”
