In July 2017, council first approved a resolution for ARCHES to receive $32,000 in funding for syringe collection until the end of March 2018.

On April 3, 2018, council once again approved a sum of nearly $54,000 to extend the ARCHES Syringe Management Strategy until Dec. 31, 2018.

With the newly approved $150,000 in funding for the Downtown BRZ Clean Sweep Program, that brings the total monies approved in Lethbridge in less a year to about $236,000 solely for needle debris pick-up and related expenses.

Councillor Rob Miyashiro says one of the problems is that many people aren’t aware of all the initiatives the city is undertaking to try and mitigate the opioid crisis, which is a huge issue not only here, but across North America.

“It’s a lot of money. It’s a huge problem and I don’t know any other way to say it…it’s either we spend the money now, or something bad is going to happen. Some tragedy is going to happen. There’s already an uproar in the city because people don’t know what we’re doing. Hopefully by doing this initiative and spending this money, people won’t see needles.”

But while Councillor Blaine Hyggen supports the Clean Sweep Program, he was one of two (the other, Coun. Joe Mauro) to vote against spending more money.

“We keep dishing out money. More and more money for needle pickup. And it just says that if once we give the next [amount] of money we’re going to be ok, we’re going to get all those needles picked up. And we just haven’t got to that point. We just keep pushing out more and more. There are supposed to be less [needles] with the Safe Consumption Site. But we’re still punching out a whole lot more money to do a duplication of services.”

During council debate, Hyggen also questioned whether there could be other alternatives to simply handing out more money, such as a needle exchange program.

Mayor Chris Spearman responded by mentioning that the recovery rate by ARCHES sometimes is up to 97 per cent some months, that many addicts can’t be reasoned with because of diminished mental capacity and that there must be more programs to keep the community safe.

Councillor Belinda Crowson explained that epidemics are difficult to deal with, and there needed to also be incentives for employment and social enterprise for those who are struggling.

The Downtown BRZ hires those who are either homeless or hard to house, to give them meaningful employment and to help clean up the streets.

The latest funding for the program will help expand it to reach further outside of the downtown core.

That will include parks and other walkways, says Miyashiro, to hopefully make living in the city a little safer for everyone.