Barrie city council postponed making its decision about whether to set up a supervised consumption site at the proposed 90 Mulcaster St. site until June 24 at a meeting on Monday.
At the meeting, council heard nine deputations that raised concerns about the proposed supervised consumption site and its location, specifically its proximity to Berczy Park.
Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care lays out guidelines for supervised consumption site applications. If the site is within 100 to 200 metres from a licensed child-care centre, park or school, the applicants for the site need to specify how community concerns will be addressed.
“We have confirmed that the distance is 168 metres from the property line of Mulcaster to the property line of the park,” Andrea Miller, Barrie’s acting general manager of infrastructure and growth management, said at the Monday council meeting.
While most council members supported postponing the decision about the supervised consumption site, others opposed pushing it back, including Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman.
Lehman said he doesn’t believe revising the application by June 24 will be doable.
“This is an unworkable motion,” Lehman said to council.
“What you’re directing the Simcoe Muskoka Opioid Strategy folks to do is conduct a consultation in three weeks based on your concern that the three-month process they just conducted wasn’t enough.”
At Monday’s meeting, council was also supposed to reprimand Barrie Ward 2 Coun. Keenan Aylwin, who was found by the integrity commissioner to have violated two sections of the City of Barrie code of conduct for members of council, but didn’t get to it in time.
The matter will instead be discussed at a later date.
WATCH: Calgarians bring concerns about supervised consumption site to city hall
Comments