By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Marathon public hearing delays council answer on supervised consumption

Nov 13, 2018 | 11:21 PM

One thing is clear following a public hearing Tuesday night: Red Deerians cannot agree on where permanent supervised consumption services should go.

Red Deer city council heard the public out for close to four hours, then deferring their deliberations and final decision on a rezoning request from Turning Point until Nov. 26.

The proposal – if passed – would give Turning Point the ability to not only relocate, but open permanent SCS at 5233-54 Avenue in the Railyards area, which is sandwiched between Downtown, Capstone (Riverlands), and the river itself.

“No one in this room wants people to die,” said Gayle Leasak, owner of Pegasus Builders, who is in the process of a build not far from the site in question.

“During construction, since the overdose prevention site went in (on Oct. 1), we’ve had another three fences cut, we’ve had propane bottles stolen, and the RCMP can’t do anything. There’s so much damage done by the people in that area now and we haven’t even got the supervised consumption services there yet.”

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Leasak, whose son Blake is looking to relocate his board game shop to the area, said he’d have to seriously consider hiring for a bouncer-like position if he wanted to maintain plans to stay open until 1 a.m. on some nights. That’s because of the people who’d be in the area for SCS, he explained.

Perhaps one organization with the most to lose is the Central Alberta Archers Association, whose president says the club would be finished if council approves what’s on the table.

“We see the needles, we see the bike parts, the shopping carts. We look at the proposal and there is going to be somebody responsible for cleaning up the drug debris, but who’s responsible for cleaning up the rest of it?” said Walter Wiley, whose facility serves as the competition venue for many young athletes hoping to qualify for Alberta Games and even Canada Games events. “We’ve worked very hard to get to where we are. How is this fair to us?”

Wiley also noted the club has been in its current spot, which is adjacent to the proposed site, for nine years, and could only obtain the proper permissions from The City to be there after it had made $40,000 in renovations.

On the flipside, those in favour of the proposal — particularly those with Turning Point — insist that there will be constant security, as well as better lighting, fencing and a new sidewalk installed to assist in crime prevention by environmental design.

Alberta Health Services’ Medical Director for Central Zone Dr. Daniel Edgcumbe, as well as Senior Operating Officer Allan Sinclair, and multiple other doctors and medical professionals also stood by Turning Point’s side or spoke following them, in support of the proposal.

Among a number of citizens to express their support was Ian Vaughan, who noted the high number of deaths from overdoses over the last year, which he said occurred while Red Deer sat on its hands.

“You might not like their choices, but this is what’s happening. I’m not an arbitrator of life and death, and no one here is,” he said. “You can’t send someone to treatment who is dead. I don’t understand the hostility towards people that just need some help. No is not an answer that’s going to work for this problem. I’m tired of the hate. I’m tired of people saying this is an issue we don’t need to talk about.”

It was mentioned during the hearing by Dr. Michael Mulholland, who works as physician lead for Safe Harbour’s medical detox program, that there have been 40 overdose deaths in 2018 so far, just in Red Deer, including four in the past week.

The latest statistics from Alberta Health show that Red Deer and Central Zone have some of, if not the highest rates of deaths from opioid overdoses anywhere in the province.

In all, council heard from about 29 citizens during Tuesday’s public hearing.