Calgary Council puts Calgary Supervised Consumption Site decision back on province

A decision about whether to close the Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) in Calgary's Beltline is back in the hands of the Alberta government.

Council voted to replace a motion to advocate the province for the site's closure with another motion to have the mayor write to the province to ask them to make an informed decision about the future of the site. The latter motion was then defeated in a 5-9 vote against.

The decision, which came after about an hour of debate, essentially means city council is taking no official position on whether to close the SCS in the Beltline.

"We care about saving lives, we care about the community. All of those things matter to us. This is not our jurisdiction," said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

"If (the province) feels that their processes can be better, that they can do this differently -- they can have wraparound supports, detox facilities -- we're happy to support that," she said

Calgary's SCS opened exactly seven years ago to the day, first as a temporary program at the Sheldon Chumir Centre.

Although health care is squarely a provincial responsibility, Alberta's addictions minister asked councillors to make the decision.

"It is important for the entire City Council, not just the mayor, to weigh in via a vote on whether Council would like to see the Sheldon Chumir site closed," reads a letter from Dan Williams to the mayor earlier this month.

"It is clear Calgarians do not support, nor is it the community's interest to support, new drug sites across the city," wrote the addictions minister.

In a statement, Williams said, "City Council was given a straightforward opportunity to weigh in on the future of the drug consumption site. Instead, Council voted to keep the site as-is. Despite my offer to make changes to services with local input, Council’s vote has made it clear they support the status-quo."

Coun. Courtney Walcott, who represents the area in which the SCS operates, said it should not be the responsibility of council to come up with a plan for any possible future sites.

"They tell us to stay in our lane all the time. I will respond in equal force: if they want to make health decisions, make them," said Walcott.

"Council is not in the position to go ahead and make health decisions without appropriate information."

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said he voted in favour of sending the note to the province. He said he believes it would "send the message to Calgarians that we understand that we have a problem here."

"There is a lot of social disorder taking place around the Sheldon Chumir, but it is also an essential and underfunded and overtaxed part of what should be a more comprehensive response to the addictions crisis," he said.

"At the end of the day, this is just pure politics precipitated by the province, and we'll see how it plays out."