Kitchener holds special council meeting to discuss Duke Street location for supervised consumption site

The City of Kitchener is holding a special council meeting on Monday to discuss moving forward with the location of a supervised consumption at 150 Duke St. W. 

That site is the recommended location for Kitchener by the region's public health department. According to a report by staff, the Duke Street location was selected based on cost, input from local organizations and readiness of the site.

It was chosen over two other locations in Kitchener: 115 Water St. N. and 105 Victoria St. N.

At the region's community services committee meeting last Tuesday, Vrbanovic said Kitchener preferred the location at 105 Victoria St. N. instead. He asked the committee to consider it as the preferred location. 

But after speaking to stakeholders over the weekend, Vrbanovic said the city is willing to support the Duke Street location. 

"It became apparent that everyone's worst concern is that we don't end up with a site," he told CBC News. 

"There doesn't appear to be political will at the region from the ongoing dialogue that's gone on to see a location at Weber and Victoria. From our perspective, a less than perfect site is certainly better than no site at all,"  Vrbanovic said.

Meeting starts at 4:30 p.m.

Ward 10 Coun. Sarah Marsh says she will withdraw the motion for the city to support the location at Victoria and Weber and put forward a new motion to support the Duke Street location. 

"What we're willing to do is to settle on a less than perfect solution, if it means the best chance of getting a consumption treatment services site in Kitchener," Marsh said. 

John Lavergne, an outreach support worker with Sanguen Health Centre, says going through with the proposal for the Victoria Street N. location would reduce the city's chance of getting a supervised consumption site. The province has not said whether it would provide money to build a facility.

"If [the Victoria Street N. location] goes through, [it] absolutely will sabotage all the hard work that so many people have done and will lead to more deaths because it will stop dead in its tracks the chances of us getting a supervised consumption site. It has to be 150 Duke St.," Lavergne said.

The meeting starts at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Kitchener city hall.