Council decision delays application for supervised consumption site in Nanaimo

Mid-island medical health officer Dr. Paul Hasselback told NanaimoNewsNOW he was disappointed by the decision.

“What Council heard were a lot of concerns that predated the establishment of the current site, that really reflect the changes happening in the illicit drug trade and some long standing issues…which are not related to supervised consumption sites.”

He suggested the deterioration of Nanaimo’s downtown and the increasing number of homeless and drug users in the City was being blamed on the overdose prevention site.

The timeline of creating a supervised consumption site in Nanaimo has now changed. Hasselback had previously hoped their application would be finished within one or two months but couldn’t say what time frame Island Health is now looking at.

The overdose prevention site will remain open. After its first month of operation at the end of March, it had been used 370 times. By the end of April, 19 people had died from an overdose in Nanaimo, which was nearly double the 2016 death rate, according to Hasselback.

According to the BC Coroner, in the first four months of 2017, there were nearly 490 suspected drug overdose deaths in the province, almost 200 more than the end of March, 2016.

“This is not an issue that’s going away on us quickly and unfortunately too many of our neighbours, family and friends are dying,” Hasselback said.

Coun. Gord Fuller, who was the driving force behind the City’s pop-up overdose prevention site in City Hall’s parking lot, told NanaimoNewsNOW he voted against the rezoning motion because “we should be moving on and looking at the broader picture.”

Rather than one site downtown, he proposed multiple sites across the City since users aren’t contained to just the downtown core.

“I think we can do it much more efficiently if there’s numerous places a person could go to use their drugs and know they’re safe,” he said.

“All you need in those buildings is a room that someone can come down and use in while a staff person hangs out and makes sure they don’t OD,” he said. “You don’t need a large scale type of operation. Why put out six or eight applications when you can put in one for multiple locations?”

In response, Dr. Hasselback said each site would require its own application, which is several hundred pages long.

“We have put a great deal of time and effort in the development of documentation required so far,” he said. “It would be a horrendous task to try to do that for each and every possible site in the City when we don’t even have a single site operational yet.”

He said what many people seem to want is a solution which would only be available many years from now, several steps along the journey towards having a handle on the overdose crisis.

“I think there’s a lot of people who want to jump to a definitive solution when there is none. We need to take the first step and unfortunately we didn’t.”

Hasselback said many of the 11 who raised concerns about the rezoning motion on Monday night were from various neighbourhood groups, such as the South End Community Association (SECA) and the Old City Association.

Sydney Robertson read a statement on behalf of the SECA to Council Monday night and said they support a supervised consumption site but not without more work and analysis.

Speaking to NanaimoNewsNOW as a resident of the area, Robertson said the neighbourhoods surrounding the Wesley St. site weren’t being properly consulted.

“Every time there’s a decision…it seems to be very well evaluated from a client or agency-based perspective. They don’t seem to be doing the same level of evaluation from the neighbourhood perspective. It seems to be kind of an afterthought.”

She said she’s heard from many in the Old City Quarter about an increasing criminal element in the area.

“There’s no need to rush this process. We need to do this carefully and we need to do this right.”

A City staff report said Island Health held two public meetings over the last four months, while the City held meetings with some community groups on May 9. The report referenced “issues emerging from the community,” including increases in public intoxication and anti-social activity. It also said residents and businesses were “stressed by the current scene.”

Nanaimo RCMP Cst. Gary O’Brien said bike patrols in the Old City Quarter and downtown haven’t seen an increase in major crime, but there has been an uptick in offences.

“They’re seeing an increase in foot traffic, petty crime and it may or may not be associated with the overdose prevention site,” O’Brien said.

Dr. Hasselback had previously told NanaimoNewsNOW Island Health was working on ways to mitigate concerns from businesses and residents around the overdose prevention site.

On May 26, Health Canada approved four supervised consumption sites, three in the Lower Mainland. Health Minister Jane Philpott said the approval of the sites is one step in combating the ongoing illicit opioid “overdose epidemic” gripping the country.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 12:38 Wedneday, May 31 to reflect new information about overdose deaths in Nanaimo and the province.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit

by Spencer Sterritt

Council decision delays application for supervised consumption site in Nanaimo

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