Bureaucracy, and time, is working against Red Deer’s Turning Point.
Stacey Carmichael, Turning Point executive director, said the agency is ready to apply for applications for a supervised drug consumption site in Red Deer, but that’s not possible due to Municipal Government Act rules.
The organization wants to reopen discussions of having a suitable location for a SCS in Red Deer.
“We really want our community to reconsider Turning Point as a location for supervised consumption site,” said Carmichael.
For this, Turning Point wants to apply for an application with the city to reconsider its downtown location. This past December, however, Red Deer city council rejected Turning Point as a drug consumption site location. Instead, it chose the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre grounds.
But this time Turning Point has the province’s endorsement.
It’s been about six weeks since the Alberta Health Minister’s Opioid Emergency Response Commission stated its preference was a fixed site that could operate out of Turning Point’s downtown location.
“So we want to try,” said Carmichael.
But Turning Point can’t apply for a land use bylaw amendment with the City of Red Deer until June.
According to the city, council acted as development authority for development permit applications for six potential SCS sites, including Turning Point.
Tara Lodewyk, director of planning services with the City of Red Deer, said because Turning Point was one of these locations, discussed by Red Deer City council, the organization will have to wait six months before applying for a land use bylaw amendment.
Lodewyk said those rules are as per the Municipal Government Act.
It’s been about three months since Red Deer city council chose Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre grounds, which means Turning Point will have to wait until June 20 to apply for the amendment.
Since January, Turning Point has reported 13 opioid-related deaths.
“That hopefully doesn’t reflect the number of folks that might pass away in the next three months because that’s way too many,” said Carmichael.
The city has been leaning towards a mobile SCS, and Carmichael wants to consider a mobile site “temporarily.”
“A mobile site will be a good option – temporarily in the meantime – because people are continuing to overdose and die in our community,” said Carmichael.
But Turning Point can’t apply for a mobile SCS site application just yet.
Lodewyk said “right now our licensing bylaw on mobile supervised consumption is silent.” She said amendments to the licensing bylaw will come back to council on April 16 or 30.
Meanwhile, it’s a waiting game for Turning Point.
The organization has to apply for a federal government exemption needed to operate a site upon which illegal drugs can be consumed legally under supervision.
The exemption application requires a location. Although the hospital was chosen as a SCS site by the city, that is not an option for Turning Point.
“It was never an option – never was, never will be,” said Carmichael.
As Turning Point waits to go through the red tape, Global News reported Edmonton’s first SCS will open to clients on Friday. In late February, Lethbridge, a similar size city as Red Deer, also opened its first SCS to clients.
mamta.lulla@reddeeradvocate.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter