Meeting with neighbours of supervised drug consumption site 'constructive,' says Ganley

Health and government officials say they are committed to working with residents and business owners in Calgary's Beltline after meeting Thursday to discuss complaints about the supervised drug consumption site at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre.

Some people living and working in the area — which is across from Central Memorial Park and near several shops and restaurants — are worried about a perceived increase in crime, drug use and vagrancy since the site opened in January.

But that isn't necessarily the case, says Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley, who is the MLA for the area.

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"It's important to make sure this works for everyone because it is saving lives, so it is important to ensure everyone can feel safe in their community," she said.

"There will be meetings going forward. I think we've heard a lot of good things, and I think AHS has some good ideas in terms of what to do about those things. This has definitely raised the need for continued engagement."

Since the consumption site opened, staff have responded to more than 230 overdoses and referred more than 200 clients to other programs, ranging from social work to addictions treatment.

Peter Oliver with Beltline Neighbourhoods Association said the meeting was a good starting point to finding solutions.

"The positive takeaway we got is that there are going to be concrete actions coming and we stressed the importance of them communicating that back with us," he said.

"I think police presence is part of it, but obviously, as we know when this started, this isn't entirely a policing issue, it's a health and social issue."

Drug use isn't new to the area, said Oliver.

"There were needles found in parks and alleys well before the centre opened, and this is part of the reason why it opened," he said. "We've also heard feedback that drug use stopped in different areas where it was happening immediately after the centre opened."

Nick Etches, medical lead for the provincial harm reduction program, pointed out that the number of social disorder complaints to 311 has actually decreased since the site opened.

"But that doesn't take away from the fact we need to be listening to the people who actually live and work in the area who are telling us what they are seeing and hearing," he said.

"We've increased the refuse collection to twice a day. The sidewalk is pressure cleaned twice a week. We've increased the number of patrols from our protective services in the area. We're also increasing the staffing complement in the supervised consumption site itself so that we can work with clients so they can understand how best to maintain the site and the neighbourhood."

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