NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT Mayor Ted Clugston addresses a luncheon crowd at the annual State of the City Address at the Medicine Hat Lodge.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
The mayor says it’s not the responsibility of the city to address the needs of people in the downtown core that were going to be serviced by a supervised consumption site.
“This is health care and a provincial issue. I would suspect that this city council wouldn’t give a dime and rightly so,” said Ted Clugston.
While it has not been officially confirmed that the province will not provide funding for a site in Medicine Hat, it looks as though that is the case. A report from the supervised consumption review panel has not been made public but Premier Jason Kenney has stated that some sites will be moved or closed.
“Nobody wants to see people dying. That’s a tragedy. (Supervised consumption) isn’t the right thing. I’m a firm believer that treatment and recovery is the only way,” said Clugston.
He says he was pleased when the new provincial government put the Medicine Hat site on hold.
“At least we knew what was going on … and I’m getting a strong sense especially here in Medicine Hat, because one never opened, that we probably aren’t going to be having one while the UCP (government) are in power.”
The number of people with drug addiction issues are still the same, or have increased during this waiting period for a decision to be made. The government has not made any announcement yet about how it will address this in Medicine Hat.
Over a number of years the city has worked hard and invested significantly to revitalize the downtown core, Clugston says, and that a “fortune” was spent to see positive change.
Some sources say and Clugston agrees that moving the needle exchange location from Second Street near the Esplanade to Fourth Street near St. Barnabas Church has created more foot traffic of people with addiction issues in the downtown core.
“I am hearing from business owners downtown that there is increased presence of people partaking in illegal drugs … and it is causing them great concern … also early morning and late at night, they don’t feel safe,” said Clugston, noting it is important that people feel safe.
When the site was initially talked about, with a location on South Railway Street, the city discussed committing more money to policing the downtown, said Clugston.
“We were actually going to go to the province and say you need to pay us back for this. Because it’s really their problem,” said Clugston.
Lethbridge recently approved $1.6 million for a downtown clean and safe strategy that will in part address issues around its supervised consumption site.
Clugston says when municipalities “step over the fence” and start funding what are provincial responsibilities, it makes municipalities look like fools and sets a precedent that might affect future funding.
About a year ago one of the main concerns of people who contacted Clugston about the proposed site was loss pf property values, he said. Even those in support of a site did not want it in their neighbourhood. It was tantamount to telling someone you would expropriate their land and give them only half the value of the land as compensation, he said.
Clugston claims Lethbridge as an example of falling property values residentially and commercially near its site.
He believes the previous NDP provincial government was in a hurry and did not consider all the implications when deciding that sites were necessary.
“They saw this as an epidemic and a crisis and an emergency and they had to do something in their minds,” said Clugston. “But it was property rights that I think were trampled on.”
