The Manitoba government is planning community meetings this week about another potential location for a supervised drug consumption site.
Initial plans for the site to be located at 200 Disraeli Fwy. were scrapped after area residents raised concerns, including that the site was near a local high school.
An in-person meeting is planned for Tuesday evening at Siloam Mission to discuss the proposed new site — several blocks away at 366 Henry Ave.
A second meeting, to be held virtually, is planned for Thursday.
The province says it intends to have the site — which will not supply drugs, but will give users a safe place to inject substances with staff on hand to respond to overdoses and provide resources to people who want treatment — up-and-running in January.
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Addictions minister Bernadette Smith said Friday that the site is being developed with the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre, and that the new proposed location is well beyond 250 metres away from schools and child care facilities.
A local business owner whose office is next door to the proposed site says he was shocked to hear about the choice of location, and has reached out to Smith with safety concerns for his workers and for the neighbourhood at large.
“I just got a call this morning from somebody who asked me about this, who lives on Laura Street,” Ed Gallos of Master Roofing told 680 CJOB’s The Jim Toth Show.
“(That’s) 300 yards away — not even that. A two- or three-minute walk. I feel sorry for those folks if this site gets put in place here.”
Gallos said he intends to make his concerns heard at Thursday’s virtual meeting, and that he’s uncomfortable with the timing of the announcement, which coincided with the start of the legislature’s winter break.
“The lack of transparency with the government doing this thing… was it a coincidence that they just announced this after they went on recess?” he said.
“I’m worried about my property value, I’m worried about the safety of my employees’ possessions — not necessarily my employees themselves, although that might be an issue going forward.”
In a statement about the proposed site Friday, Smith called the creation of the facility an important element of the province’s harm-reduction strategy.
“The proposed supervised consumption site… is located where people need the services,” she said.
“Open drug use is happening in the streets, in parks and the bathrooms of local businesses. When people use drugs in public, their safety and the safety of the community is being compromised.”
Both public sessions are being facilitated by local research firm PRA, and will be held from 6-8 p.m.
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