ByWard Market, new night team still getting to know each other (CBC Ottawa)
September 7, 2025 - CBC Ottawa
The new "night ambassador" program that sends street teams into the ByWard Market has largely spent its first several weekends doing outreach and getting set up.
The downtown Ottawa district's authority launched the pilot project at the end of June using money from the nightlife commissioner.
The idea is that having four ambassadors making the rounds, offering help, trying to de-escalate disputes and staffing a York Street kiosk between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. will make the market safer and make people more comfortable visiting.
"If you feel comfortable in an area then [you] are more likely to return," said Victoria Williston, a communications manager with the ByWard Market District Authority, on CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning on Friday.
The pilot is expected to last until early November, with a midway progress report also coming out on Friday.
It said that over 18 nights between June 27 and Aug. 23, ambassadors talked to about 1,150 people, which works out to 60 to 70 a night.
Eighty-six per cent of those interactions were considered general engagement and outreach.
"We are still getting a feel for what this program can offer the market. Right now it's very much a learning process for us as it is for vendors and different businesses," said ambassador Nathan Kwok on Ottawa Morning.
Four per cent of those interactions, or roughly two to three a night, were dealing with '"aggression and conflict," the report noted. The rest included things like assisting people who were lost or who needed medical help.
