Northreach (formerly HIV North) has been operating the SCS in Grande Prairie since March of 2019 (Photo: Northreach Society)

By Emily Keller

supervised consumption sites

Northreach awaits final report on supervised consumption sites

Jan 23, 2020 | 5:30 AM

Premier Jason Kenney announced on Tuesday that a preliminary look at the report on the impacts of supervised consumption sites shows an increase in crime and property damage, and that following the full release of the report, sites across Alberta may need to close or re-locate.

Grande Prairie currently has one mobile SCS run by the Northreach Society.

Melissa Byers, Executive Director of Northreach, says they will have to wait and see the results in the final report.

“We’re just going to keep on with business as usual and keep pushing our supervised consumption site to fall into the continuum of care, which Premier Kenney had addressed, and working with the four pillars to reduce drug-related harm within our community.”

A panel was appointed last summer by the UCP government to examine the socio-economic impacts of the sites.

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“It certainly is possible that some will be relocated,” said Kenney. “It’s never been our intention to shut all of the sites, but we’re taking a very close look based on the data.”

Byers says not having a brick and mortar location does enable them to move the site more easily.

“However, we are located currently at the shelter, which, I would say, is one of the areas where these issues are already occurring, so it’s a complimentary service to what we’re already seeing in our community. However, if the report comes out and we do have to move our unit, we will be working with our local partners to address anything that we need to do in order to move.”

The SCS in Grande Prairie opened nearly a year ago in March of 2019, and Byers says they have had a successful first year.

“We’ve got a really strong team that’s really focused on being part of the continuum of care and helping people along onto services such as detox treatment, addictions counselling,” said Byers. “So, we’ve built a wrap-around care model that really addresses, I think, some of the issues that we’re seeing.”

“Obviously, the service is in existence due to the overdose response but we’ve designed our services to collaborate with all of our other services as well as our external partners to address some of the issues that drug use and homelessness can create.”

Kenney says he expects to full and final report to be available in the coming weeks.