Boom!

That's the hand grenade that Berry Vrbanovic just lobbed at the plan for a supervised drug consumption site behind Kitchener City Hall.

With a few well-chosen words Tuesday afternoon, the normally cheerful mayor of Kitchener blew up the plan, carefully arrived at by Waterloo Region staff after months of community consultation, to have a place in which drug addicts could safely consume their illegal drugs and receive counselling and health care.

The preferred site, which regional staff hoped would be approved for provincial funding, was to be in an empty building at 150 Duke St. W.

Regional councillors were set to approve the plan next week and start the application to the province right away.

Oh no you don't, Vrbanovic said.

The City of Kitchener has to agree to the plan before the region's proposal can be sent to the Ontario government.

And Kitchener councillors won't do that, Vrbanovic revealed to shocked regional councillors at a meeting Tuesday.

They welcome a drug consumption site downtown. And indeed, Kitchener is the only city in Waterloo Region that does. Give them credit for that.

But like everyone else, they don't want it in their backyard.

Vrbanovic said Kitchener councillors unanimously agree the Duke Street site is too close to nearby child care centres and a school (St. Louis).

"City hall is also a community gathering spot," he said. "We need to find a balance."

Vrbanovic said his fellow councillors prefer a site at Weber and Victoria streets, on a small piece of land beside the new emergency services station. It will be discussed at a city council meeting Monday.

It wasn't the first surprise of the day. Earlier, developer Stephen Litt had shown up at the 11th hour to say that area developers would also rather not have the site on Duke Street.

It "might not be in line with what that corner is envisioned for," he said.

Coun. Geoff Lorentz described himself as "a little miffed" by it all.

He pointed out that one of the drawbacks of Weber and Victoria is that there is no building on it. One would have to be constructed.

The province hasn't funded building construction in the past for safe consumption sites. That's $1.9 million that Waterloo Region would most likely have to find from local taxes.

There are a few things to learn from these developments.

• Vrbanovic's announcement probably kills the already anemic chances that Waterloo Region has ever had to get a provincially funded site.

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We have just waited too long to move. The province will approve only six more sites across Ontario. Applications are supposed to be filed "well in advance of April 2019." Everything would have had to go without a hitch for us to be considered. Now, there's a big hitch.

• If there is a winner in this whole messy affair, it is probably the Working Centre, a social agency that offers a wide variety of services for vulnerable people in downtown Kitchener.

Joe Mancini, who runs the centre with his wife, Stephanie, was at Tuesday's meeting. The centre owns a house on Water Street that he hoped would be the preferred option. Regional staff had not recommended it, saying there was too much opposition from neighbours.

But now it looks like Mancini could be the only player left standing.

He described to councillors how the St. John's Kitchen nearby, also operated by the centre, already serves as an informal drug consumption site now. There are medical staff who offer life-saving help for those who have overdosed, and a wide variety of other kinds of assistance for those who are ready.

Regional councillors all agreed to the idea of a temporary site being set up as soon as possible, while everyone figures out where the permanent one should go. Who better to operate that than the Working Centre?

• We are a two-tier municipal system, so Waterloo Region has to get the approval of the host municipality. If we already had one-tier municipal government, like Ottawa or Hamilton, Kitchener council wouldn't have been able to derail or delay the plan, because it wouldn't exist. There's some food for thought.

ldamato@therecord.com

Twitter: @DamatoRecord

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