A day after city council endorsed two proposed locations for supervised drug consumption sites in London, one councillor is questioning the rush to support the spots.
Phil Squire was one of two councillors to vote against the motion Tuesday night backing 446 York St. and 241 Simcoe St. as the possible locations for the permanent sites. The motion came before council even though neither site is currently zoned for use as a clinic.
"I think it is a little premature for council to be saying 'well, we like these sites," said Squire. "What I think council should have done is waited. Waited until our process is completed in terms of looking at these sites, are they the appropriate sites within zoning in the City of London and then I would be happy to vote."
A staff report from the city's planning department surrounding new policies and zoning rules for the sites is slated to go to politicians on Monday.
Squire, who does support having permanent supervised consumption sites in the city, also takes issue with council undertaking a largely symbolic gesture just to boost the Middlesex London Health Unit's application to Health Canada.
"My job as a city councillor isn't to satisfy Health Canada. That is between the health unit and Health Canada," said Squire. "I think my responsibility is to make sure [the supervised consumption sites] are in the proper location and I've obviously had a lot of concerns expressed to me about those locations. So I at least want to get a report from staff about that."
Councillor Jared Zaifman shared Squires concerns and was the only other city politician to vote against endorsing the supervised drug use site locations. Ultimately, council passed the motion by a vote of 10-2.
The region's medical officer of health stressed the push to get the permanent site up and running sooner rather than later is about saving lives.
"It is true that this process is moving as quickly as possible and I think that is a good thing because we have a pretty significant drug crisis in our community and it needs to be addressed," said Dr. Chris Mackie.
For people who live or work near the proposed sites and have concerns, Mackie notes public input meetings will be conducted on an ongoing basis.
"It is not like we are just going to talk to people once and then never listen to them again," said Mackie. "We have set-up ongoing community liaison meetings for example at the temporary overdose prevention site and we will continue to have that were anyone in the neighourhood can reach out to us through those meetings, give input and we can adjust the service based on any issues that come up."
The health unit announced 241 Simcoe St., a building owned by the London and Middlesex Housing Corporation, and 446 York St., which is across from Mission Services of London as their two new picks for the sites last month. They came as two other possible locations, both of which already had the required zoning, fell through.
The health unit needs Health Canada approval before it can open any permanent supervised consumption facility.
A temporary overdose prevention site at 186 King St. has been open since February.
