‘People are dying’: Mother makes tearful plea for OPS site

Oct 16, 2019 | 4:15 PM

A mother’s pain was front and center at Tuesday’s city council meeting as she made an emotional plea for the overdose prevention site.

“I just, I need to know what we’re doing, where this overdose prevention site is going because people are dying,” Sandra Welton said.

Welton’s daughter Mehgan, passed away from a Fentanyl overdose this past spring at the age of 28.

“I need to hear from city council, what is the hold up on this site because people are dying?” she asked.

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Welton said an overdose prevention site could have saved her daughter’s life.

“If there was a safe injection site, I know from the bottom of my heart, my daughter and I are very close she would have gone there and had the drugs checked because she was scared of Fentanyl,” Welton said.

Mayor Victor Cumming explained the overdose prevention site is in the hands of Interior Health and not the city.

When Welton questioned council about reported pushback to the site Coun. Brian Quiring explained much of the pushback is about location.

“We recognize that the minister declared a state of emergency. That means that we are getting an overdose prevention site, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I believe it is a state of emergency, so the pushback is not whether or not we are getting it, it’s where does it go,” Quiring said.

In a statement to Vernon Matters, Interior Health said they remain committed toward establishing an overdose prevention site and are now looking at various options to implement a success service “that balances the needs of clients and others in the community, in as timely a manner as possible.”

by Tiffany Goodwein

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