Common Ground clean-up program suspended due to staff shortages

The Yellowknife Women’s Society has temporarily suspended its Common Ground program over the winter while it works through staffing shortages.

The program, which employs people experiencing homelessness to keep the city clean by collecting garbage downtown and along public trails, is expected to relaunch in the spring or summer.

The society’s executive director Renee Sanderson said the program’s employees have been dispatched to other programs to help with things like snow shovelling or a copper wire stripping program.

In the meantime, the City of Yellowknife is encouraging residents to use its click and fix program to report things like overflowing recycling and garbage bins, illegal dumping, and places where maintenance is needed.