A packed gallery was on hand Monday night as a committee of London city council met to go over what policies London should adopt surrounding supervised consumption facilities.
In the end, the planning and environment committee voted 5-0 to endorse the staff-recommended policies, with Coun. Stephen Turner absent. But not before getting an earful from the people who attended.
“Why were we not consulted?” said Kristina Fowler, a Londoner who lives across the street from one of the proposed locations for the facilities.
“We want to participate at every stage of these supervised consumption facilities,” said Dave Lundquist, a SoHo resident speaking on behalf of members from his community.
A total of 35 people addressed the committee.
The policies themselves provide a set of evaluation criteria to be considered in order to ensure supervised consumption facilities are properly located. These criteria relate to having locations that meet the needs of those who they are designed to serve as well as locations that would avoid land use conflicts.
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Along with a number of items, these policies suggest that facilities be in areas well serviced by transit and separated from schools, parks, pools, arenas, community centres and the Western Fairgrounds. The policies add that the facilities should allow for privacy of users and be located near communities with high drug consumption.
Dr. Chris Mackie had the last word for the public participation portion of the meeting. During his remarks, the Middlesex-London Health Unit’s medical officer of health addressed concerns regarding public engagement.
“We would want the community’s input in designing the services, but also after they been implemented, we need to hear from people in the community,” said Mackie.
“I also recognize that hasn’t been as comprehensive as it could’ve been.”
The staff recommended policies will be presented to the municipal council in hopes of being put into place. At the moment, supervised consumption facilities fall under the same policy as clinics.
Coun. Jesse Helmer said this current clinic status is what makes the need for policy so crucial.
“No zoning amendment, no consultation process, none of that would be required,” said Helmer when discussing the current clinic policy.
“I think this is a step in the right direction where we recognize this is a particular kind of use. We should define it, we should make sure there’s appropriate consultation around and weigh these different factors when deciding if it’s an appropriate location or not”
The now-endorsed policies will go to city council on May 22.
Two weeks ago, city council endorsed 241 Simcoe St. and 446 York St. as proposed locations for supervised consumption facilities. Those locations remain under review by Health Canada.
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