Edmonton city councillors have approved a rezoning application, allowing the George Spady Society to move its medically supported detoxification unit.
At a public hearing held Tuesday morning, no one signed up to speak either for or against the move.
The detox unit will move from 100 Street and 105A Avenue to 156th Street on Stony Plain Road.
In an email, George Spady Society CEO Lorette Garrick told Global News the move is to add capacity to the current operations.
The rezoning was required as the zoning only allowed for a 1,000-square-metre healthcare facility. Now it will be zoned for 2,000 square metres.
Petra Schulz says there is a need for more beds. She was recently trying to find detox space for someone in the province.
“I spoke to a nurse and there was at least a three-day wait. But it’s not like you can phone up and you come there in three days. You have to show up every day for three consecutive days to be turned away and hopefully on the third day you get in,” said the Moms Stop the Harm advocate.
Garrick told council the current supervised consumption site downtown will not be moving to the new building as it does not allow for that service.
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“At some point we will be moving the supervised consumption site but we’re not ready to do that work yet, nor do we have another location for it,” Garrick said.
The site will stay open downtown for about a year, but the George Spady Society would not release details on what will happen to it after that.
“They connect people with services: healthcare, housing, things like getting ID, getting income support,” said Schulz, arguing the site does more than just offer supervised consumption.
She said it can be extremely difficult for a space to move or for new sites to be approved.
Boyle Street has been attempting to open a health hub in Old Strathcona for more than a year and a half.
“Since the consumption site at Boyle Street closed, we have seen a real uptick in public substance use in the downtown core,” said Schulz, adding that needle debris has also increased downtown.
According to Alberta Health Services, the Spady site is one of three in Edmonton.
The others are at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and the Radius Community Health and Healing centre at 106th Avenue and 96th Street.
Supervised consumption sites have been a contentious issue in Alberta.
Last Thursday, a public hearing in Red Deer saw speakers debate the closure of that city’s overdose prevention site.
Businesses complained of broken windows and other disorder since the site was opened.
Councillors agreed to ask the provincial government to close the site and replace it with more detox capacity and treatment beds.
The request would see the site close by the end of 2025.
According to the province, the George Spady move will see the number of detox beds offered on-site increase to 41 beds from 31. The number of residential recovery beds will go from 10 to 19.
A spokesperson for the minister of Mental Health and Addiction said the province is in discussion with George Spady about what relocation of the consumption site would look like though no decisions have been made.
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