New app maps out Lethbridge’s public washrooms
By Lethbridge Herald on April 25, 2025.
Geography master's student Zeeshan Hamayun show the web application GottaGoYQL that he and his team members at the University of Lethbridge created.Joe Manio
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go, and now you’ll know where in Lethbridge, thanks to a new web application.
A team of University of Lethbridge researchers have created a digital interactive map of all available public washrooms in the city, aptly named GottaGoYQL.
“Public washroom access is important for public health, equity and dignity,” says public health professor Julie Brassolotto. “It is also a critical part of an age-friendly and accessible community. We all need to use the washroom throughout the day, each with different needs and varying degrees of urgency.”
Known as the Lavatory Laboratory, the research team, including Brassolotto, a public health professor, Philip Bonnaventure, a geography professor, along with geography master’s student Zeeshan Hamayun and public health master’s student Brianna Rogers, travelled
around Lethbridge mapping public toilet locations and documenting their features.
“As a geographer, I am always looking for ways to communicate information spatially and through mapping,” says Bonnaventure. “When the opportunity to work with public health was proposed, I saw this as a way to blend our disciplines while aiding our community. Everyone feels more comfortable knowing where you can go when you are on the go.”
The entire process took just over a year, from its inception to working web app. The physical mapping, driving to the different locations and documenting the features took about five outings (about three hours each) over six months.
“I visited every single gas station in Lethbridge, and let me tell you, I’ve had better days,” says Brianna Rogers. “There’s been brighter and sweeter smelling spaces I’ve been into. But if the Lethbridge community gets to know where to go, when they need to go, taking photos of every gas station washroom is truly worth it.”
The GottaGoYQL map shows the location of public washrooms around the city and the amenities offered by each. Public washrooms are those that members of the public can use without needing to be paying customers. In addition to the location pins, the map also provides information on whether the washrooms are gendered, their accessibility features, if a changing table is available and more.
Merchants put up “No Public Washrooms” or “Washrooms Are For Paying Customers” signs because of various factors, including cleanliness concerns, potential safety issues, and the cost of maintaining a public restroom. While some businesses are legally obligated to provide washroom access, many face challenges in managing use and ensuring a hygienic environment.
“One of the challenges was actually trying to explain to people what we’re doing there, because ‘Can we take a look at your washrooms?’ is like a weird request,” says Rogers.
Because everyone needs to use washrooms, the team hopes to foster a better sense of community and support, by easily providing information on where community members can fulfill a basic human need.
“Maybe you’re a new parent who wants to find a washroom with a change table,” says Dr. Brassolotto. “Or maybe you have a health condition that requires frequent bathroom visits or you’re out walking the dog when nature calls. Whatever the situation, the map shows you where to go when you’ve gotta go.”
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The taxpayer installed a stand alone public washroom near the downtown BMO bank several years ago and had to remove it because it was rarely available for public use, because the unhoused were using it to party in, do drugs and often pluggeg the toilet by flushing articles down such as plastic, clothing, broken meth pipes, syringes, etc.! Don’t blame businesses!
That stand alone toilet was around $200,000, then more costs incurred to remove it! You cannot have anything nice downtown or the addicts destroy it, . . . washrooms especially!
When you are a small business and you are alone or only have one ot two employees, you do not have the time to monitor the washroom you have in your business or take the time to clean up the mess left after someone who you tried to be kind to, who is one of the addicts on the streets asks to use your washroom, and then spends an hour or more in it, bathing, doing drugs or some cases have sex with another, damaging it or plugging it, overdosing so you have to call EMS/police, taking that time away or more importantly, getting assaulted as you try to get them to leave. Several downtown business owners have been assaulted just for trying to get their washrooms cleared for a customer who wanted to use it or an employee.
Many people are ignorant to what the downtown business owners have to deal with on a daily basis and for example, if you have to get Roto-Rooter in to clean out you washroom pipes because someone put needles or some other garbage down it, it sometimes takes a few months of revenue to pay just for that one bill! When you have to call EMS your focus is on that washroom, and you cannot watch the activities in the business, so you might and have suffered losses from shoplifting, or customers see what is going on and never return to your business!
More importantly, there is the liability issue: if someone pricks themselves on a syringe while putting a tampon into a container for them in the washroom because an addict has just injected drugs with it and that addict has HIV/AIDS, Hep C (which is prevalent with the addicts from their drug use) and that person gets sick from it and sues you, that could end your business and possibly cost you your home or lifesavings.
If you have seen some of the issues we have had to deal with by allowing the addicts and homeless to use our business washrooms, you may have a better understanding!
Finally, we are already dealing with issues from this drug crisis and the impacts of COVID closures.
I would suggest we focus on ending this madness on our streets, which has cost the downtown community hundreds of thousands in the last few years, enforce the laws, take back our city from the clutches criminals who feed the addiction issues by supplying all the drugs, treat the ones who want to be treated and incarcerate the criminals who refuse.
The washroom problem is one of many that all point to the drugs and the addiction crisis. That is the common denominator and until we put our focus on that, people will continue dying, taxpayers will continue to see billions of tax dollars across Canada burned up, enabling the addicts and not treating them, our city will continue to be destroyed and first responders will continue to burn out trying to reduce the issues!
This can be fixed, but the feds are part of the problem! We can do better in Lethbridge with existing laws/bylaws!