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First community consultation sessions on impacts of Lethbridge’s drug crisis set for October

Sep 17, 2018 | 4:51 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB — Dates have been set for consultation sessions in early October where Lethbridge residents will have an opportunity to share to their perspectives and collaborate with members of City Council on solutions that would form part of a community-based drug strategy.

Lethbridge has been dealing with the escalating drug crisis in recent years, and council voted to hold community consultation sessions aimed at tackling issues arising from the drug crisis and to establish a special ad hoc committee back in August.

Mayor Chris Spearman says it’s important for City Council to provide leadership by bringing people from all sides of this issue together to share their perspectives and collaborate on community-based solutions.

“We need solutions that respect the range of interests that exist and meaningfully address the difficulties our community is facing because of this crisis,” Spearman continued. “Together we will develop a solutions-based substance abuse strategy that will be created by the community, driven by the community and delivered by the community in partnership with the responsible levels of government and service providers.”

A total of four sessions will be held Oct. 10 and 11 where stakeholders, business people and any other interested community members can discuss how the drug crisis is affecting them.

Participants will also be asked to share ideas and collaborate on constructive solutions to deal with negative effects of the drug crisis.

These sessions will comprise the first of three phases of consultation, and community members are invited to choose from the four sessions offered:

– Tuesday, Oct. 10, 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. or 5:30 to 8 p.m.

– Wednesday, Oct. 11, 1 to 3:30 p.m. or 5:30 to 8 p.m.

All sessions will take place at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge, and each session will accommodate up to 80 participants.

Additional sessions may be added if required.

At a gathering outside council chambers on Monday, Sept. 17, Spearman told members of the media it’s important that they get the community voice, and to do it in an open and transparent way.

“There’s a lot of information out there on social media and it’s creating controversy in the community. What we need to have is face-to-face conversations, we need people to come forward with constructive ideas, the community has to be collaborative and we have to be solution focused. We want people to come forward with ideas about what we can do to help. There’s a lot of significant issues that are underpinning the drug issue,” Spearman said.

Some of those underpinning issues include what’s causing the drug crisis, how is homelessness affecting the drug issue and the degree of drug use in the community, and how to resolve those core issues that are the root of the problem.

The upcoming meetings are part of a broader consultation process, which will include three phases conducted over six weeks aimed at achieving the following objectives:

– Provide opportunities for Lethbridge citizens to discuss their experiences and suggest solutions
– Define and agree upon challenges that can be addressed
– Identify community-based strategies to address these challenges
– Identify any gaps or barriers to implementing these strategies
– Recommend terms of reference that set out the mandate and scope of work for the ad hoc committee established by City Council

Councillor Rob Miyashiro wanted to be clear that they’re not solving the drug crisis through these consultations.

“What we’re doing is dealing with the peripheral issues around the drug crisis in Lethbridge. How do we deal with vagrancy, how do we deal with loitering, how do we deal with debris across the city, how do we deal with the crime associated with the drug crisis? We’re not here to solve the drug crisis, that’s not our job, and that’s not what we’re set out to do.”

Miyashiro, referencing comments made by Spearman, says they’re going to look at community-based solutions to deal with all of these issues.

“Further to that, the committee that will be formed, will be using the information that comes out of these meetings as their strategic plan to implement within our community.”

Councillor Blaine Hyggen simply believes it’s time that council move ahead with this step.

“It’s really exciting to see we’re finally making this move. We’re getting together as council, listening to the community, taking the community’s input and dealing with that. It’s something I think we’ve wanted to do for quite some time, and I’m happy it’s finally here,” Hyggen added.

Phase 1 of the consultation process will produce a What We Heard report.

This report will inform Phase 2 consultations which will involve a two-day community strategy session later in October with up to 40 targeted stakeholders such as EMS, business people, social service providers, police, housing agencies, and harm reduction service providers.

These Phase 2 consultations will identify desired responses to the drug crisis, any barriers to implementing those responses, and will produce the elements to create a draft community-based drug strategy.

Phase 3 consultations in early November will include a working group of representatives from key organizations and agencies in Lethbridge who will develop an action plan and draft terms of reference for the Council-appointed committee.

Miyashiro pointed out that they want to move quickly on this because they understand what the issues are but want to hear more from the community about what their issues are around the drug crisis.

“We want to push this ahead to the meetings in early October, hopefully, late October, and perhaps even have the final report before Christmas as well as the terms of reference for the community committee. This isn’t going to drag out for half a year, this is going to happen fast and we’re going to make sure that we get the right information in front of that committee.”

The terms of reference will require approval by City Council.

One of the things that 2018 has highlighted, according to Spearman, is the City of Lethbridge lacks services.

“That’s not news, that was identified in the 2015 provincial mental health report. We’re struggling as a community to deal with the drug issues because of the lack of supports in the community. We need to focus on what we can do, and in what order.”

Spearman spoke about looking at the long-term solution, as well as what might they have in two-years if the City got funding approvals tomorrow, and what to do in the short term.

“The frightening thing about the drug crisis is since 2015 its doubled every year, we don’t know if 2018 is the apex or if it’s going to double again next year,” he continued. “We want to make sure that we have short-term solutions in place and we’re working together as a community to make it doesn’t spread.”

One of the challenges, and what council had in its original motion, was the fact there are four pillars to this issue and they really only have a partial solution on one of them.

“We want to address all four pillars and make sure that as a city we’re going forward with a clear strategy, a community-based strategy to say that we’re working on all four pillars and we have partners at the provincial and federal level that are working with us on those solutions,” Spearman said.