Calgary council takes no position on supervised consumption site at Sheldon Chumir

After more than an hour of debate on Wednesday, Calgary city council ultimately voted against weighing in on what should become of the supervised consumption site (SCS) at the Sheldon Chumir Health Centre.

City council vigorously debated a motion brought forward by Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLeanon whether it should call on the provincial government to close the site, following a public back-and-forth earlier this month between city hall and the province. Council amended the motion to drop the reference to its closure, and to request data and engagement on its operations.

The motion was defeated 9-5 with councillorsGian-Carlo Carra, Richard Pootmans, Evan Spencer, Jasmine Mian and Sean Chu voting for, and councillorsMcLean, Courtney Walcott, Jennifer Wyness,Raj Dhaliwal,Kourtney Penner, Terry Wong, Sonya Sharp and Andre Chabot, as well as Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek,voting against.

The Chumir's SCS was opened roughly seven years ago. Supporters of the facility tout it as providing a life-saving service, while opponents blame the site for public drug use and increased calls to police in the area.

During Wednesday's debate, several councillorsreiteratedthat the site falls solely under provincial jurisdiction.

McLean saidit's up to the province to decide on a path forward for an alternative to its service. But he also argued the current site isn't tenable, adding the city is in no position to tell the province how to run health care and addiction treatment, and he doesn't believe the site should remain in its current location.

He said the people using the SCS create social disorder in the Beltlineneighbourhood where the site stands.

After council adjourned, McLean said he was disappointed and angry that his motion was shot down after being amended.

"We wasted a lot of time," he said. "I put a lot of effort in working with all of my colleagues, we thought we had a resolution and a compromise over the last couple weeks, and then it all fell apart."

Wyness said Calgary is in a situation where there is no singlesolution to its problems and called on the province to take the lead rather than having council weigh in.

Mian amended McLean's motion toask the province to provide more information aboutthe SCS and alternative plans to address drug addiction in the city before council could be reasonably asked to weigh in. Her amendment also removed the motion's requestelement to theprovince to close the SCS.

She said it's the province's job to make a decision about the fate of the SCS, and asking council to offer ayes or no opinion on whether to closethe site is ultimately redundant.

"We are entirely being baited into a political position that we shouldn't be in," Mian said.

Mian added that asking the province to close the SCS at Chumir outright without an alternative plan in place wouldn't help concerns around social disorder in the Beltline.

LISTEN | Ward 8 Councillor Courtney Walcott discusses why council voted not to take a position on the future of the city's supervised consumption site:

Calgary Eyeopener8:24Council decision on supervised consumption site

We hear why Calgary City Council has voted not to weigh-in on the future of the supervised consumption site at the Sheldon Chumir.

Walcottarguedduring the debate Calgary has several problems with homelessness, drug addiction and mental health issues. Hesaid opponents of the SCSuse it as a scapegoat andpoint to it as the cause of those issues, instead of identifying those problems as byproducts offlaws inthe health-care system.

Walcott said outside council chambers after the meeting adjourned that he was happy with the way council voted.

"The reality isit's not our businessI'm really grateful that we're in a place where people will still have an opportunity to have their lives saved withoutcouncil intervening in provincialmatters," he said.

Gondek said during debate that shedoesn't think city council should be weighing in on a decision that is firmly not in its jurisdiction.

"We shouldn't be voting on any of this it is not our responsibility to weigh in on provincial matters at all," Gondek said.

"This is garbage, the whole thing is garbage. We should not be having this debate, it is not our jurisdiction," she added."And if we don't push back against this provincial government to do their job themselves, they'll never do it."

Gondekpreviously expressed her desire to see an alternative plan in place before the potential shuttering of the Chumir site, however she maintained that it is not within the city's purview to offer its opinion on the fate of the SCS.

"If you close it down without having anything else to offer, all of those people will be forced onto the street, creating trauma for themselves, creating crisis situations for themselves, as well as the community," Gondek said outside council chambers Tuesday.

Calgarians ralliedto keep the SCS at Sheldon Chumir

On Tuesday morning, roughly 70 SCS supporters gathered outside city hall to call on council to defend the site.

Sydney Boa, an organizer of Tuesday's rally who's also amember of the local harm reduction advocacy group Street Cats,doesn't want to see the site shut down. She added that a new SCS would need to open its doors before the current site closes, to prevent a gap in service.

Boa said the site's clients view the SCS as a safe space where they're cared for, and where staff know them and their medical needs.

"It's just a community and a place of belonging for a lot of people who otherwise have nowhere else to go," Boa said.

Rather than closing the Chumir site, Boa said she'd like to see more sites opened in different quadrants of the city, and additional services such asinhalation capacity, which she argued wouldcontribute to curbing public drug use.

Rally against proposed motion to close Calgary's only Supervised Consumption Services site

8 days ago

Duration 0:58

Harm reduction advocates, health care professionals and community members gathered at Calgary City Hall Tuesday morning as council prepares to vote on a motion asking the province to shut down the SCS at Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre.

Addictions medicine and internal medicine specialist Kate Colizza, who attended Tuesday's rally, said the site has become a scapegoat for social disorder problems that are being seen around the city and country, and that closing the site without additional supports or a transition plan in placewill lead to more overdose deaths and further disorder.

"Closing this site is going to cause immeasurable harm and actually worsen some of those concerns," Colizza said, who argued that low-barrier mental health supports and more investment in affordable housing is needed.

Addiction medicine physician Meera Grover, another rally attendee, said it's important for her to be able to recommend her patients access the SCS.

"This is the gold standard of care for people with substance use disorders who are in active use," Grover said.