By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

one-on-one interview

Kenney says UCP will re-evaluate supervised consumption in Red Deer if elected

Apr 8, 2019 | 5:32 PM

The leader of the United Conservative Party says whatever the NDP has committed toward opening a supervised consumption site in Red Deer will be put under review if his party wins next week’s provincial election.

“We will not, as a government, support drug injection sites unless they have gone through extensive local community consultations, and unless we know what the social and economic impacts will be,” Jason Kenney said during a phone conversation with rdnewsNOW Monday on his way to a campaign rally west of Sylvan Lake.

Kenney feels supervised consumption sites in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver have done little good, saying there have been increases in crime, anti-social behaviour, needle debris, and open drug dealing.

“The NDP has a single-minded focus on illegal drug injection sites,” he continued.

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“We take a much more balanced approach of listening to local communities about the social impacts while also taking the compassionate approach of more detox, addiction treatment, recovery and mental health support. Plus, we’ll be doing more to crack down on the dealers and make sure repeat offenders end up behind bars.”

Kenney says the reported successes of places like Insite in Vancouver come from selective studies that don’t tell the whole story.

“They don’t look at the number of deaths or incidents of crime in the broader neighbourhood. The number of mortalities in the Downtown Eastside has gone up and up and up. It’s human carnage down there,” he says.

According to an Oct. 2018 report by The Georgia Straight which cited statistics from the BC Coroners Service, the city of Vancouver (not specifically the Downtown Eastside) experienced fatal overdoses at a rate of 56.1 per 100,000 people, nearly 10 times what the rate of overdoses was for that city a decade ago.

Turning Point, which operates a temporary overdose prevention site in Red Deer and is preparing to open a permanent supervised consumption site as early as October, declined an offer to reply to Kenney’s comments at this time.

— GSAs

Rallies are taking place Tuesday in Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat opposing the UCP’s plan to scale back protections for gay-straight alliances.

The UCP has taken heat over the issue, but Kenney believes the rallies are only organized by NDP supporters who say parents can’t be trusted.

He says there is no chance the UCP will back off its proposal around GSAs.

“Our sense is that the vast majority of Albertans support our moderate mainstream approach. We support the ability of students to create gay-straight alliances and other peer support groups in the schools to help kids who are being bullied,” he said, noting they oppose the ‘ridiculous’ attack by the NDP that their policy would out gay kids.

“No teacher would ever violate their professional ethics by disclosing intimate personal information like that to parents. While we support the strongest legal protections for GSAs in Canada — which were enshrined in Bill 10 in 2014, we think the NDP has gone a little too far with the legislation which makes Alberta the only jurisdiction in North America to write into law a completely adversarial approach towards parents.”

Kenney continued, adding that GSAs can be put in place for very young age groups which sometimes, “can have particular mental or emotional health challenges which require the loving support of caring parents.”

The question around what the difference is between a GSA and a chess club was also posed to the UCP leader.

“I’ve said that they’re no different in terms of parental notification, but obviously the kids are dealing with more serious issues. Just as there’s no legal mandate to inform parents about a kid joining the chess club, there should not be about joining a GSA,” he said. “But here’s my point, if the chess club decided to go to a tournament in another town, or an outing outside of during school hours, the parents would usually be advised of that.”

The rally in Red Deer on Tuesday begins at 5 p.m. outside Red Deer City Hall.

— Hospital expansion

Kenney reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring Red Deer gets the hospital expansion it desperately needs.

“We are committed. The expansion of the Red Deer Hospital will be in the capital plan of a United Conservative government,” he said.

“I need to sit down, should we be honoured with a mandate in government, to sort out exactly what the different proposals are — there are at least two — and about the size and scale of an expansion and the kind of additional equipment needed there.”

Kenney said he can’t yet put a dollar figure on an expansion project, but says the UCP would reprioritize healthcare funding by slashing the NDP’s plans for a “super lab” and the “nationalizing of hospital laundry services.”

“We want to sit down with Red Deer residents and people who work at the hospital to sort that out. I have met with a number of physicians who work at Red Deer Hospital and heard their totally legitimate concerns, and that’s why this would be in our capital plan.”