By Justine Kelsie

Parkside Inn building to become Community Outreach Facility

Oct 16, 2018 | 2:29 PM

The Canadian Mental Health Association will now take over the Parkside Inn building to run a Community Outreach Facility. 

A development permit was approved on a two-year temporary basis at a city committee meeting. CMHA Executive Director Randy Arsenault says there is a lot of work to do with the community, businesses and residents.

“(We) are looking forward to working with them and listening to their concerns. I have met with a few individuals already and took their advice.”

He says their organization will be providing mental health and addiction services, more supervision and on-site support. CMHA has experience in a similar model in Red Deer with the Buffalo Apartments.

The Tuesday morning meeting had a handful of people come to raise their concerns. A business owner from the area was concerned about safety while another woman was concerned about the proximity of a local liquor store to people who suffer from addiction issues that may end up residing there. 

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The building has been under scrutiny by the community for months after an influx of disturbances and an increase in criminal activity. During that same meeting, RCMP Inspector John Respet said the calls out to the building have gone down in the last few months, and even the last few days, as they have put an enforcement focus on it. 

Following the approval of the permit, the committee also moved that a neighbourhood advisory committee is created. A list of on-site physical improvements along with timeline and costs for the property will be put together as well as ways for people in the area to upgrade their buildings to create a safer community.

Mayor Bill Given says they were trying to keep everyone’s concerns in mind when making their decision.

“There was a really strong recognition that Grande Prairie needs to make sure that people have adequate housing to meet their needs. I was really gratified to hear that,” says Given. 

“I can absolutely appreciate that people need to see results on the ground to be comfortable. Right now, I think if any one of us were in this neighbourhood’s shoes, we would be concerned about a future that we can’t predict and about things we have seen in the past. The committee did its best to gather information so we could better understand the plan going forward.” 

A report from the city administration will be brought forward to a city council meeting in 30 days on the advisory committee and improvement lists. At that time, the advisory committee would provide input on how often they would like reports from the RCMP and other agencies about the ongoing status of the facility. 

Arsenault says they will begin the process with taking down the sign to reduce stigma and start to brainstorm a new name. He says this is an interim fix as CMHA works on two affordable housing units.