City council should expect an earful Monday night from opponents of the proposed supervised consumption site (SCS) near downtown Barrie.
The agenda shows 17 people could speak to a motion that council endorse 11 Innisfil St., as the SCS.
An SCS provides 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.
Anne Cleaveley, who lives on nearby Eccles Street and has helped rally her neighbours against this site, will make a deputation to council.
“We have a few days between now and then (Monday) to make as much noise as we can, and decide what we want to do as a neighbourhood against this,” she told BarrieToday. “None of us are opposed to people getting help and getting all-encompassing help, but this is not the right approach.”
Cleaveley says she’s been going door-to-door for the last three weeks, dropping off information letters, so her neighbours know what’s going on. Some people in the area don’t have internet, she said, or are older residents and unaware of what’s going on.
She said confusion about the address didn’t help, either. It began as 80 Bradford St., Unit 940 (which is the legal address), then was identified as 19 Innisfil St., and finally 11 Innisfil St., which is behind 80 Bradford, facing Innisfil Street.
“It’s almost like they don’t want our voices to be heard and that’s just not going to happen,” Cleaveley said. “We are going to have our voices heard, one way or the other. It’s just really frustrating.”
Only two Barrie councillors — Gary Harvey and Mike McCann — voted against endorsing 11 Innisfil as the SCS site when it was given initial approval May 25.
Turning that around Monday will be a challenge, Cleaveley said.
“Everybody else was basically saying… happiness and joy and kumbaya. That’s great, but you do consult with the neighbourhood. You haven’t consulted with the neighbourhood," she said.
Despite what Cleaveley says is a lack of communication and consultation, there is considerable opposition to an SCS at 11 Innisfil.
“There are a lot of local businesses that didn’t have any idea this injection site was going in. There is a lot of opposition (now),” she said. “There has been no neighbourhood consultation. The whole thing has just been handled really poorly.
“We’re looking at it like the fight’s not done. We will be taking it to the ministry of health and to Health Canada, and to the MPP, whoever we need to take it to because this is just not right. They haven’t done the proper research into the site," Cleaveley added.
Jonaleah Baguan and her husband, Lhankee Alviar, are also on council’s deputation list for Monday’s meeting.
“We live in the neighbourhood where they are proposing to put a safe injection site at 11 Innisfil St.,” Baguan said in her deputation request to the city. “As you may already know, our neighborhood is opposed to this for many reasons.”
Monday’s endorsement motion council will consider also includes a number of conditions.
The application for the proposed SCS at 11 Innisfil would be endorsed with an understanding that the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and Canadian Mental Health Association Simcoe Branch (CMHA) would work with the city to address fencing, landscaping, access, security cameras, discarded needle collection boxes, appropriate property standards and property maintenance measures at the site.
An SCS advisory committee would be established, as would a security plan and/or a needle sweep plan, along with any related neighbourhood integration matters.
The CMHA and health unit would provide annual reports to council and city staff would report back on the progress of the above matters.
The search for an SCS location was carried out by the CMHA (lead applicant) and the health unit (co-applicant), along with the SCS site selection advisory committee.
The health unit announced a few weeks ago that 11 Innisfil had been identified as the proposed location for an SCS. It would be operated by the CMHA and funded by the province.
Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman has said the province will determine the SCS’s location, but city council is being asked for a motion of support, for that specific location, before the application goes to the province.
Officials said once the SCS applications go to Health Canada and the province, it could be six months before there’s an answer.
Health Canada’s application includes a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act exemption that allows staff with the SCS to have the ability to test and handle drugs without any criminal sanctions.
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 was ultimately rejected. A site selection advisory committee was struck in the fall of 2019, did searches that year, during the spring of 2020 and the winter of 2021. There were also community surveys before 11 Innisfil was chosen.
