A private children’s daycare and a supervised consumption site (SCS) don’t mix, even with a city street between them, says one neighbour.
“I don’t see any situation where it’s OK for them (children) to see people high, walking or standing around,” said Camran Qureshi, a 24/7 Wee Watch operator on Innisfil Street near downtown Barrie. “It’s a danger for the kids, a danger for the residents.”
Barrie councillors gave initial approval Tuesday night to endorse 11 Innisfil St. as the city’s SCS, to provide a safe space and sterile equipment for individuals to use pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of health care staff, where consumption means taking opioids and other drugs by injection, smoking, snorting or orally.
“We already have people shooting up in Milligan’s Pond,” said Qureshi, who has lived on Innisfil Street for more than four years. “With this (SCS), you are affecting the whole area. It’s not good to experience this kind of stuff.”
Right now, he’s looking after six children during the day and another six in the evening.
Barrie city council will consider final approval to endorse this SCS location at its May 31 meeting.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit announced a few weeks ago that 11 Innisfil St. had been identified as the proposed location for an SCS in Barrie. Also considered were 110 Dunlop St. W. Unit 4, 11 Sophia St. W. and 192 Bradford St.
Qureshi said he didn’t hear about the SCS until a few weeks ago, when it was announced, and that nobody from the city has contacted him about it.
Once he knew about the four potential sites, Qureshi said he was even more opposed to 11 Innisfil St.
“Compared to the other three sites, all three of them are infinitely better than this site,” he said, noting the planned residential development in the area at the old Barrie Central Collegiate property and along Dunlop Street West.
“How are you building new residential in the area and revitalizing the downtown and building a supervised injection site right in the middle of it?” he asked. “How is that OK with anyone?”
During a presentation to Barrie councillors on Tuesday night, the local health unit's Dr. Lisa Simon said they have just started to hear from neighbours near 11 Innisfil St., including the daycare.
Coun. Gary Harvey asked how a daycare there affected the rankings of the four sites.
“Would I prefer there was not a home-based child care across the street? Of course I would. Nobody would design things that way,” Simon said. “Unfortunately, that is not the reality of communities, and people who use drugs are part of communities and need to be served in our community.
"For a home child care, there might be five or six children at maximum there at any one time," she added. "I’m not sure it’s that dissimilar from a street that has children in homes, which is something we’re already into, with residences and business nearby.
“So no it does not change the fact that this is our top choice and location."
Coun. Mike McCann was unconvinced.
“I’ve just got to get this off my chest. The whole issue of the daycare… that’s a major stumbling block, almost a non-starter,” he said, mentioning a lack of due diligence by not talking to neighbours right across from the site.
“Just for clarity, our consultation process up until now was in order to help us choose the most, what we felt to be the best site and that process concluded just over two weeks ago,” Simon said. “That’s when the site was chosen.”
McCann also asked why an industrial land location was not chosen for the SCS, but was told that was too far away and wouldn’t be used by those who use drugs.
“It’s a waste of money and, frankly, wouldn’t be funded by the provincial government,” Simon said.
Mayor Jeff Lehman said the 11 Innisfil St. location is important for another reason.
“I don’t think we can talk to this community about the site operating and not talk about the pond, because what we’ve got today is an unsupervised consumption site in Milligan’s Pond, right behind the daycare,” he said. “Part of the reason to have the site here is it can remove, hopefully, one of the most dangerous aspects of drug use in the pond area, which is the overdoses due to poison drugs.”
Coun. Robert Thomson put the decision council will eventually make on this SCS in perspective.
“I think as a community and as council, we shouldn’t think of this as a victory,” he said. “This is a service that it’s sad that we need to consider in our community. It’s actually a failure of society and I just hope we can build on this one pillar.”
Health officials said once the SCS applications go to Health Canada and the province, it would be six month before there’s an answer.
Health Canada’s application includes a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) exemption that allows staff with the SCS to have the ability to test and handle drugs without any criminal sanctions.
The province would fund the SCS.
The search for an SCS in Barrie has gone on for about two years. At one point, 90 Mulcaster St. was considered, in June 2019, but ultimately rejected. A site selection advisory committee was struck in the fall of 2019, did searches that year, during the spring of 2020 and winter of 2021. There were also community surveys before 11 Innisfil St. was chosen.
