By Dominic Abassi

New location picked for Nanaimo’s overdose-prevention site

Jan 13, 2017 | 3:49 PM

NANAIMO — A change of venue likely won’t affect the timeline for getting a sanctioned overdose-prevention site operating in Nanaimo.

At a special council meeting on Thursday, councillors cleared the way for Island Health to create the service at the supportive housing unit at 437 Wesley Street. Last week, the health authority had said it was moving ahead with a site in their building at 526 Wentworth Street. 

The change of location came about following a Wednesday meeting with council and city staff, according to medical health officer Dr. Paul Hasselback.

“We discussed a variety of other locations and I think that there was strong consensus that the preferred location from everyone’s perspective is actually on Wesley Street,” Hasselback said.

Hasselback says there are a variety of advantages to the Wesley Street spot instead of Wentworth. He says the unsanctioned pop-up consumption site in the parking lot at city hall has proven that the area was being used for drug use, so in that sense, it has improved the area by creating a more appropriate location for people to use drugs.

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“It’s also closer to where many of the current clients of that pop-up site are actually located, so the transition from moving the pop-up to the Wesley Street location should be smoother.”

Hasselback says there were some other factors that made the Wentworth site not as desirable. Although Hasselback didn’t specifically mention it as a factor, Pauline Haarer Elementary School is right around the corner.

“We’re fortunate that the timeline for both operationalizing the Wesley Street and Wentworth is about the same,” said Hasselback. “We do expect that if all goes well, it should be operational by the end of the month.”

Hasselback says the only major city-related issue at the moment is a variety of paperwork that will need to be taken care of to move the process closer to completion.

The Wesley Street supportive housing unit is on city-owned land and is designed for people who are homeless or at-risk of being homeless. It is operated by the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Hasselback says Island Health has been working to create overdose-prevention sites under a ministerial order handed down on Dec. 12. The order is meant to accelerate the process of creating places for drug users to be supervised to mitigate the risk of fatal overdoses.