Calgary council support for closure of supervised consumption site defeated again

A man waits to enter the supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary on Aug. 26, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

An effort to have Calgary council advocate to the province to close the supervised consumption site (SCS) at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre failed Tuesday before even reaching debate.

A motion by Ward 14 Coun. Landon Johnston sought a decision from council to support the closure of the Safeworks site in the city’s beltline.

“I just want our municipal government to be in collaboration with the province, and to be there if they need us. That’s all this is, it’s just a letter of cooperation,” Johnston said before his motion was defeated.

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The decision ultimately rests with the provincial government, which is in charge of health care. Alberta’s minister of addiction services indicated in December the site would be closing this year.

“When I say it hasn’t worked, I mean we get letters from Ward 14 about residents in and around the safe [consumption] site. We’ve got reports of drug dealers camping out front of the safe [consumption] site,” Johnston added. “It hasn’t worked in the past.”

A vote in favour of the item on Tuesday’s committee meeting would have sent the notice of motion to a council meeting later this month for full debate.

It was defeated 8-7 with Couns. Andre Chabot, Raj Dhaliwal, Mike Jamieson, Landon Johnston, Dan McLean, Kim Tyers and Rob Ward voting in favour.

Calgary’s previous council faced a similar vote last year, but councillors also chose to take no official position on the closure of the SCS.

Johnston did not immediately indicate whether he’d bring the motion back to committee again in the future.