City to gather input for opioid committee

City to host community meetings to gather information

Lethbridge City Council has delayed establishing terms of reference for a planned committee to work on solutions to problems stemming from the opioid crisis in order to make time to seek community input.

On Tuesday, council voted to begin the process of planning a number of community meetings in order to gather information that could help inform the development on the new Community Response to the Opioid Crisis Ad-Hoc Committee.

During discussion, Coun. Rob Miyashiro said it was important to not have the picture “half drawn” when looking for community solutions, and there was a need to have community input before decisions were made.

“There’s going to be multiple meetings,” he said, adding those meetings will likely be on tight timelines.

“We’re going to push for as much community involvement as possible.

“We want to talk about things like vagrancy and loitering, and effects on business, and the crime related to the drug issue.

“No pointing fingers, no laying blame, just how do we overcome this.”

Coun. Blaine Hyggen said he is happy to see council moving ahead on efforts for more community involvement.

“I think this is a great way to identify some of the gaps that we have out there,” he said.

“It’s a good way to do it, and I’m looking forward to the outcome, for sure.”

He also urged the community to take part in the consultations.

“Let’s get everybody out,” he said. “Anybody who wants to talk. Not just the experts. Anyone who wants to talk has the floor, let them give the input they need to better our community.”

On Aug. 7, council approved a series of consultations to promote community input on the opioid crisis, as well as an ad-hoc committee.

The community will be asked to take part in developing an action plan to tackle the many issues which have sprung up around the opioid crisis.

A series of community sessions will be held to allow stakeholders and interested community members to collaborate on potential solutions and develop a community response strategy that can be implemented quickly.

There is also a need to show the public there is only so much that can be done from a municipal standpoint, something both Miyashiro and Hyggen acknowledged following the decision.

“There’s a lot of things we can’t do as a municipality,” Hyggen said. “But the problem is the community doesn’t know that. It’s important that they know a lot of these things are provincially funded and they are provincially run. There’s nothing really that we can do except for creating a safe community for the citizens.

“It’s important to understand there are certain things that are out of our hands.”

As an example, calls from the public to arrest all drug addicts are simply impossible for a number of reasons.

“The solutions have to be legal,” Miyashiro said. “They have to be achievable. The solutions we are looking for have to be things we can implement at some point.”

No set date has been planned for the first of the community meetings, but it could take place as soon as the end of the month. The City is expected to provide updates as they are available.