Mayor Ken Johnston told the Red Deer business community not to pre-judge the permanent homeless shelter project based on what’s downtown now.
“What we are driving towards is far beyond what we have today,” said Johnston, who spoke Wednesday at a Red Deer and District Chamber luncheon at the Holiday Inn and Suites.
“It’s not going to be a bigger, better warehouse…”
Johnston elaborated, after his speech, about the “transformative change” that’s envisioned.
He described the permanent shelter as having referrals for addiction treatment, mental health counselling, and housing placement. He also talked about having programs in place to divert people from having to use the shelter.
While “everyone has been doing their best” to deal with downtown problems — including businesses, social service agencies and city council — Johnston feels these “noble efforts” have been falling short because a more integrated infrastructure is needed to help people deal with personal crises including homelessness, addictions and mental illness.
It’s still not known how the Overdose Prevention Site will work with the new permanent homeless shelter system.
Johnston said life-saving overdose prevention services are needed amid the opioid “scourge” in the city and country. But community challenges are resulting from how the OPS is now functioning, and there’s a need to reduce these “unintended negative impacts,” added the mayor, who’s been discussing this with Alberta Mental Health and Addictions Minister Mike Ellis.
The former Alberta NDP government had promised OPS operator Turning Point a Supervised Consumption Site, with more comprehensive services than exist at the current OPS trailer, set up in a parking lot.
“We hope it’s structured to deliver the services that were intended for it,” said Johnston, who had told chamber members that downtown revitalization is one of the keys to re-igniting the local economy.
A public hearing on proposed permanent shelter site, on the southeast end of the Taylor Bridge, is expected in March.
Meanwhile, a new Justice Centre, with additional courtroom capacity, is expected to open in 2023, and two new addictions treatment centres are also expected to be operational by then — with a total of 110 beds. These will be “fantastic additions to the city,” said Johnston.
He told chamber members about various local initiatives, including improvements to the accessible Capstone area, and capital upgrades to the G.H. Dawe Centre. He stressed he’s optimistic about a post-COVID recovery, with new investment pouring into the region for hydrogen and carbon capture projects.
“Amazingly we have underground capacity,” he added, noting that the geography around Red Deer has been deemed the best suited in the province for these new initiatives.
Johnston plans to attend a provincial hydrogen conference in April to try to bring more investment to the city. “There is so much activity with (smaller private companies) scoping out locations in central Alberta. We have the infrastructure.”
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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