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Bordeleau said police have been conducting some enforcement, including executing search warrants, seizing cash and products and charging people who work in the shops.

“That work does continue,” Bordeleau said, but police simply can’t permanently close shops, some of which have reopened just days after being raided by police.

Bordeleau said the provincial government has said it will provide support to ensure that all the illegal shops are closed but that “it’s not clear at all whether there are any dollars or resources that come with that announcement.”

It’s also an “opportunity for the city” to look at what ways it can, through licensing and municipal bylaws, prevent the dispensaries from opening in the first place, and if they do open, to have some regulatory ability to close them.

Ottawa Public Health is opening a satellite interim supervised injection site on Tuesday on Clarence Street. The site will temporarily use the federal exemption of drug laws given to the operators of what will eventually be the site at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre.

Police board member Suzanne Valiquet asked Bordeleau if that meant that a pop-up safe injection site in Raphael Brunet Park will be closed.

Bordeleau explained that the pop-up site, run by Overdose Prevention Ottawa, is on city property in a city park. The police force awaits “direction and input” from the city on what action it wants taken.

Police have received complaints about the pop-up site but have also received letters supporting the effort. The chief called it a “mixed bag” but was clear he takes issue with the location.

“That location is not an appropriate site for this type of activity taking place. The operators are operating without a license from Health Canada and the Ottawa Police Service has no jurisdictional or law enforcement powers to deal with that issue,” he said.

Police, however, have been monitoring the presence of drug dealers in the surrounding area.

syogaretnam@postmedia.com

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