Mayor Chris Spearman (left) and City Councillor Blaine Hyggen (right). (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

In wake of report, Spearman & Hyggen say SCS needs to stay open

Mar 5, 2020 | 4:09 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Two officials with Lethbridge City Council are reacting to Thursday’s provincial report on supervised consumption sites (SCS).

As LNN reported, the report takes several issues with the way the city’s SCS is run from a management perspective and points out concerns like crime rates, needle debris, and the cost to run this service.

You can access the full report from the Government of Alberta here.

The report does not make specific recommendations for what should happen to Alberta’s SCS’s, although the province is working on those decisions now. Mayor Chris Spearman says he is concerned about the effects that potentially shutting it down could have.

“What then happens with needle debris and needle distribution? Will there be more of that? Will it be throughout the city? I think we need to have considered responses and we need to make sure that, whatever the solutions are, that we end up with a net benefit and a net positive impact on the community and the city.”

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Spearman has, for years, been an advocate of the merits of harm reduction with supervised consumption and hopes that it will stay open.

He and City Councillor Blaine Hyggen say they are happy with the province’s recent efforts to expand on the other components of the continuum of care. The two believe it is important to advance all parts of care, which includes Lethbridge’s SCS continuing to operate.

This includes this week’s announcements of a drug treatment court and hiring more ALERT officers in Lethbridge, as well as growing the Bringing the Spirit Home addictions support program and hiring more police officers in Standoff.

They both hope that investments like these will continue.

Hyggen told media that we was thrilled to learn that the review panel consulted over 19,000 Albertans and that the results seem to reflect much of the concerns he has personally heard.

“There’s some extreme excitement that their voices were heard. It’s so important, I can’t emphasize enough of how the government has listened to the community and everyone in the community.”

The provincial review does not mention many of the initiatives undertaken by the City of Lethbridge recently to tackle issues such as needle debris and a general feeling of safety, namely being the Downtown Clean and Safe Strategy and the new LPS Crime Suppression Team.

The panel came to Lethbridge in September 2019 to speak to residents about their thoughts on the SCS and related issues. Spearman says the city provided their inputs and hopes to the panel, but since then, the panel has had no contact with officials in Lethbridge.

Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jason Luan said, when it comes to making decisions on the future of Alberta’s SCS’s, those will be done on a city-by-city basis as each community’s needs are different.

Spearman and Hyggen said they have no idea what direction the province might take on Lethbridge’s site.

“I hope that we’ll work with the provincial leaders, the ministers will hopefully work with the community and with ourselves on city council and what solutions are best,” says Spearman.

Announcements are expected to be made in the coming weeks.