Calgary council takes no position on supervised consumption site at Sheldon Chumir
CBC
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 McLean on 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 councillors Gian-Carlo Carra, Richard Pootmans, Evan Spencer, Jasmine Mian and Sean Chu voting for, and councillors McLean, 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 councillors reiterated that the site falls solely under provincial jurisdiction.
McLean said it'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 Beltline neighbourhood 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 single solution to its problems and called on the province to take the lead rather than having council weigh in.
Mian amended McLean's motion to ask the province to provide more information about the 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 request element to the province 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 a yes or no opinion on whether to close the 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.
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