Some Chinatown merchants are asking for help with security costs, following a controversial move by Vancouver city council to give an exclusive contract to a private security firm.

In December, the Non-Partisan Association members of council, which form the majority, voted to expand the privately operated Downtown Ambassadors program, which employs private staff to patrol downtown streets and report street crime and aggressive panhandling to police.
 
All 19 business improvement associations in Vancouver can apply for some of the $870,000 in funding, but they must use the private security staff of Genesis Security, which operates the program.

Chinatown merchants say the red-jacketed security guards are not suitable for their needs.

The Chinatown Business Merchants Association has been paying for its own private security service for 15 years, and it doesn't like the exclusive deal, which renders its service ineligible for funding, according to association chairperson Tony Lam.

The association's own special security guards know the area and the language, and its  members don't want to have to switch in order to get the funding the city has committed, said Lam.

"After 15 years, they know every store. We just phone them. They come. They know what happened. We need it, and it's easier to communicate," he said.

Vision Vancouver councillor George Chow told CBC News on Thursday the city has opened a can of worms by using public funds to pay for private security for business districts, and he doesn't like the NPA's decision to make an exclusive deal with one security firm.

"I think you need different models for different neighbourhoods," said Chow.

Previously, the Downtown Ambassador patrols were limited to the downtown core and paid for by the Downtown Business Improvement Association.

The new funding will expand the program to 24-hour patrols downtown and add new patrols in business areas across the city of Vancouver.