LETHBRIDGE—A proposal to ask the province to cut off funding to Lethbridge’s supervised consumption site — the busiest in North America — was defeated 6-3 Monday evening following a heated debate inside council chambers and protests outside on the steps of city hall.

The city’s council chambers were packed Monday as councillors debated the future of Lethbridge’s only supervised consumption site, which is run by the not-for-profit organization ARCHES. The site averages more than 600 visits a day, making it the busiest on the continent.

Councillor and deputy mayor Blaine Hyggen had presented a motion asking the city to request that the province stop funding the site while an Alberta-wide review on the viability of the harm reduction method is underway. His motion also proposed that the site be prohibited from distributing needles outside its premises.

Mayor Chris Spearman, a longtime advocate of the site, argued that Lethbridge doesn’t have enough supports for people who suffer from addiction, and said the site has unfairly shouldered the brunt of community frustration.

“We need to make evidence-based decisions,” he said, adding Lethbridge “can’t go backwards.”

Hyggen said his motion was in response to the concerns of Lethbridge citizens, who say needle debris from the site continues to be a problem plaguing the community.

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Hyggen also attributed a rise in crime specific to Lethbridge to the site’s existence. Hyggen said he is a believer in harm reduction, but that the site’s current operations are flawed.

“It is my opinion that the current facility is not run effectively or efficiently,” Hyggen previously told Star Edmonton.

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Monday’s council debate was heated, with tense exchanges between Spearman and Hyggen. Spearman accursed Hyggen of spreading fallacies about the site to further his motion, while Hyggen defended himself, expressing concern for businesses and citizens he says continue to suffer.

Hyggen said he was disappointed his motion did not pass, but he appreciated the debate and said he looks forward to seeing the outcome of the provincial review on supervised consumption sites in the province.

As debate over Lethbridge’s site raged Monday, Alberta’s United Conservative government announced further details on its pending review, including its appointment of an eight-member committee that is set to hold meetings and town halls during the first three weeks of September.

Critics of the committee’s scope — which excludes examining “merits” of the sites as harm reduction or their utility in communities — say it could result in the sites losing their funding altogether. The government wants to look at the impacts on the neighbouring areas and says it’s already aware of the evidence that the sites result in harm reduction.

“I know many Albertans feel they haven’t been heard in the past. But our government is listening,” Luan told reporters on Monday. “We understand their concerns regarding safety and impact to businesses and communities.”

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The site has strongly divided public opinion in Lethbridge, a city of 100,000 people located two hours south of Calgary. Hundreds of people gathered outside city hall there Monday, some in support of the supervised consumption site and some against it. Those opposed chanted, “Shut it down,” and urged people to sign a petition to “immediately terminate support” of the site.

Lou Mate Jr., the owner of a printing business located behind the supervised consumption site downtown, spoke to the crowd about his frustrations since the facility opened. “This entire business district is becoming a ghetto,” he said, alluding to a rise in crime and people increasingly avoiding the downtown core as a result.

Lethbridge mother Janessa Fyfe, who said her 6-year-old son was pricked by a needle in the park a few weeks ago, also spoke. She says her son is undergoing consistent blood work as a result. “It opened my eyes to the major problem we are facing here in Lethbridge,” Fyfe said.

Those who support the site say shutting it down would lead to more needle debris on the streets of Lethbridge, as vulnerable people would have no place to use their drugs. They said closing the site would put more people at risk.

“The only outcome of that is death,” said Lori Hatfield, a member of Moms Stop the Harm, a group that represents family members who have lost loved ones to addiction.

Spearman said the city’s supervised consumption site is integral to helping combat an addiction crisis that has plagued Lethbridge for decades. It is also one of the only services available for people who use drugs in the city, he said, as treatment beds are limited and supportive housing units are nonexistent.

In response to Hyggen’s motion, Stacey Bourque, executive director of ARCHES, said clean needle distribution has been a practice in Lethbridge that dates back to 2001, long before the supervised consumption site opened its doors in March 2018. She added the site has seen a 70 per cent drop in needle distribution outside its premises since it opened.

“No argument, no ideology, no opinion supersedes evidence and best practice,” Bourque said. “Science overrides all of that.”

Bourque said the site is fully financed by the province and cutting funding could mean shutting its doors. She added ARCHES is happy with the outcome of Monday’s council debate, and is hopeful the provincial review will provide positive solutions on how to address gaps that exist when it comes to recovery services in the city.

While Hyggen’s motion on Monday attracted a lot of attention, it isn’t entirely new. The councillor tried to pass a similar motion last year asking the site to stop distributing needles outside its building. It was defeated 5-4.

He said he was reopening the debate in council because the needle debris problem has persisted and, with the United Conservatives in power, he said their approach to combating the issue might be different.

“It’s been a year now, things have not gotten better,” Hyggen said.

With files from Kieran Leavitt

Nadine Yousif is a reporter/photographer for Star Edmonton. Follow her on twitter: @nadineyousif_

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