Moncton City Council has decided to spend $180,000 to help Downtown Moncton Centre-ville Inc. (DMCI) with an ongoing program to cleanup the downtown core.

The DMCI-led initiative will run from May 1 to October 31.

Despite calls to expand the cleanup beyond the downtown, Councillor Shawn Crossman, who sits on the DMCI board, says it will be focused on the business improvement area (BIA).

“At this stage, we’re looking at the BIA only. And we’re looking at getting caught up on the debris and the amount of garbage and drug issues that we have going on within the downtown BIA area.”

DMCI executive director Patrick Richard told council the organization intends to hire people from the city’s homeless shelters.

“We have the opportunity to offer low barrier employment. So I think it works extremely well and is a win-win for both the downtown and for those individuals.”

In December, the city contracted DMCI to conduct a two-week cleanup effort during the World Junior Hockey Championship.

DMCI said the so-called “mini pilot project” received positive feedback from hockey fans, residents, elected officials and businesses.

During the World Juniors, DMCI noted it looked and felt like it had a hold on the cleanliness and in part the security issues in the downtown and merchants felt that same level of service could be maintained year-round.

The cost of that two-week effort was $13,000.