Lethbridge council quells motion to stop funding to supervised consumption site

A motion calling for a halt in funding to a supervised consumption site in Lethbridge was rejected by city council Monday in a 6-3 vote.

The resolution proposed that city council ask the province to cease funding to the Arches site while a review of all supervised consumption sites is underway. The motion signed by three councillors also called for no distributed needles to leave the facility.

Mayor Chris Spearman urged council to stick to its plan of trying to secure more supports for the community.

“Lacking all the other supports, supervised consumption turns out to be the whipping boy in this community,” he said.

“Everybody blames all the drug issues on the supervised consumption site. The drugs came first. We’re trying to obtain the supports to deal with an issue.”

In speaking against the motion, Spearman added he is not “going to tear down the supervised consumption site.”

“In September 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada made a 9-nothing decision that supervised consumption sites, based on the evidence, were beneficial for health,” he said. “I’m not an expert — I’m not going to challenge their decisions. They reviewed the evidence.”

Coun. Blaine Hyggen, who brought the motion forward and was supported by councillors Ryan Parker and Joe Mauro, said he doesn’t want the supervised consumption site closed.

“I just don’t like it in the current format that it’s being operated,” he said, adding his measure of success is when the number of users at a site decreases.

“It shows that those people are getting the support services that they need,” he said.

Coun. Jeff Carlson said two years ago, “crime was on the massive upswing, needles were everywhere” in Lethbridge.

“We responded,” he said. “The (supervised consumption site) was, as my colleagues have said, the first prong. But we knew we needed more, and we were getting there . ... I’m sad that we’re under review, because we need those other services.

“Let’s keep advocating for better supports, more supports — we can get through this as a community,” he added.

The Lethbridge vote came as the UCP government announced details of an upcoming review of all existing and proposed supervised consumption sites across Alberta.

There are seven supervised consumption sites in the province.

A mobile unit proposed for Calgary and sites proposed for Red Deer and Medicine Hat will also be part of the review.