Council moves ahead on licensing for mobile supervised consumption

“We have the beast that is ravaging Red Deer, that is ravaging Alberta and Canada,” said Councillor Ken Johnston, who recounted an event he’d attended Tuesday morning where former Fort McMurray fire chief Darby Allen was a keynote speaker.

“It is time for us to address the beast that is not only taking lives and harming public health, but is chewing up resources in our hospital, our EMS, our public spaces, our law enforcement etc. This is a proven way of addressing the beast, the beast of drug addiction and torment of the addicts.”

Councillor Dianne Wyntjes said it is important that council gets this right.

“What a mobile unit would bring is instead of folks using corners or alleys, it can offer a safe space where they can feel welcome,” she said. “But I must say I am challenged because I still think if we’re going to go through these steps and some of the challenges other cities have gone through, we need to look at a permanent site.”

Two amendments were made and tabled for administration to bring back to second reading with clearer wording.

Councillor Lawrence Lee is proposing that the operator of a mobile unit be fined if they fail to leave a site in the state it was in originally. Meanwhile, Councillor Tanya Handley is asking council to consider limiting the number of licenses available to just one so that the preliminary successes and/or challenges can be assessed by The City.

As proposed, the License Bylaw amendment would require the operator to obtain written permission from the landowner of any approved site before parking there. There would also be a four-week consultation period with occupants of buildings and businesses with 100 metres of the site.

Stacey Carmichael with Turning Point said she hasn’t had any preliminary talks with any of the landowners about whether or not they’d grant permission.

“Like I said previously, we appreciate that council is trying to be proactive, but I am taking away that we have had 17 fatalities this year and we’re still debating about potentail clean-ups outside a mobile site and that it’ll take several months to make this happen,” Carmichael said.

“We could’ve been well along the way for a permanent fixed site by this time. So we’re taking away the fact that very few people talked about the individuals we’re seeing every day on the streers affected by this and they’re more concerned about litter.”

Carmichael clarified that she’s not questioning the character of councillors, but rather their actual intent on moving forward on this crisis expediently.

There is no public hearing for changes to the License Bylaw and the matter will return to council for second and third readings at their regular meeting on May 28.

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Council moves ahead on licensing for mobile supervised consumption

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