Business group ‘extremely concerned’ about overdose prevention site

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In its letter to Dix and Brown, the chamber urges Interior Health to have immediate discussions with the city and business organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce.

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“Among the issues to be addressed is how loitering will be handled to minimize the impact on businesses and their customers. This is of concern as the current COVID-19 pandemic may restrict how many people can be inside the facility at any one time,” Kempton said.

“There also needs to be a discussion about the hours of operation (proposed 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and whether this is best for the facility’s clientele and the adjacent businesses. The determination of a suitable location for the OPS is critical to the success of the program, as is the acceptance of the OPS by businesses and the community at large. Interior Health clearly needs to come back to the table.”

Interior Health announced the prevention site will be located in the Primary Health Care Centre at 3306 32nd Avenue across from Beach Radio.

Mayor Victor Cumming said he feels IH put appropriate measures in place to minimize the impact to that area.

“I think in other communities where it’s been managed really well, it had no impact on the neighbourhood. And because this is going to be IH staffed — and because the staff are going to be there before and after as it’s going to be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. — I think they’ve done a good job of putting in place the elements that would make this a very low impact on that particular area and neighbourhood,” Cumming told Vernon Matters.

At Monday’s council meeting where IH announced the plan, Coun. Kelly Fehr said the facility is “well-needed.”

“It’s unfortunate, in a sense, that it took so long due to the public engagement process but it’s an important piece. I do believe that an OPS is part of the solution. I’m very grateful that Interior Health is spearheading it and is actually going to run it with wraparound services,” Fehr said, before thanking the IH reps at council’s meeting.

Coun. Dalvir Nahal asked how long the facility will be open.

“We don’t have a timeline. It’s still a public health emergency [opiate crisis] and this is under that, so if it’s deemed over, we’ll have to look at stopping this program,” Colleen McEwan, director of clinical operations North Okanagan, said.

Nahal said she appreciates it’s not just an overdose site in that there is other services offered, but she wondered about the safety of business staff and shoppers in that area.

“There is a bunch of things we did,” McEwan said in response. “One of them is to look at the hours from nine to three because one of the big concerns from the feedback was the evening and closing down an overdose prevention site. The staff will be on site until four o’clock and the OPS and all the other services will end at three, so there’s an hour for staff to help people finish off what they’re doing and to move along. We’re also reaching out to the neighbours and giving them a phone number they can contact us right away if they have any individual concerns which will go straight to IH.”

McEwan said they will also hold an open house when that’s allowed, so people can come in and see it and ask questions. She said they have met with the city’s bylaw department about working together should issues arise.

She said the most important thing is they have an amazing team that works at the facility.

“We have 16 staff and two psychiatrists where this is work we do. We are experts in this and we have relationships with our clients and we’re able to have difficult conversations with them about how do you ensure this is a successful site and how are we a good neighbour.”

Nahal felt it would be better to open the clinic at night when businesses are closed adding some people she knows with addiction problems sleep during the day and are up in the evenings.

Coun. Brian Quiring noted the site is located directly across the street from his office (MQN Architecture and Interior Design).

“So probably out of everyone here, I’m going to be the most affected,” Quiring said. “I was of the opinion it should be at the hospital but I think I was wrong. I’ll be the first to say that, and I don’t say that very often. This probably is the right location for it.”

IH noted the site on 32nd Ave. has been providing health services for 12 years.

“I would say it’s had no negative impact on my business” Quiring said. “Am I delighted about it? No. Am I opposing it? No, but I do have a few concerns. On the positive side, bylaw is very close at the parkade. Shawna’s [Baher] team (RCMP) have done an incredible job patrolling so that’s very much appreciated. It’s a good neighbourhood.”

Quiring said there is no retail in that area, other than Staples. Of nearby businesses there is Hogarth’s Pharmacy, Lensmaker Optical, Vital Path Health Clinic, a dental office, and OK Tire.

Quiring said a city project will “tear-up” 32nd Ave. in that area this summer, which he says could lead to some businesses using the back lane during the construction.

“There is some potential there for conflict if you guys are going to be using that back lane as well so that’s another thing you’ll have to managed your way through.”

Coun. Scott Anderson asked IH for the number of businesses and seniors that were in favour of locating it downtown, but IH said they didn’t do a survey on that.

“We did not do a survey and ask for numbers of how many wanted it and how many didn’t,” said McEwan. “We did an open engagement, a town hall, and discussed it with all different people, and we looked at all different feedback.” We looked

Anderson suggested IH was solely looking at the site through “a medical lens.”

“It’s a health care service that were putting in place, and we’re making the plan based on our engagement strategy and epidemiology,” said McEwan.

McEwan was not able to provide the cost of the facility when requested by Anderson.

After asking how many addicts would be able to utilize that service in Canada, Anderson went in another direction.

“I guess what I’m getting at is there are 2.3 million Canadians with diabetes, and I’m wondering what we’re doing for them?”

“I’m not here to actually answer those questions,” said McEwan. I’m here to talk about the overdose prevention site.”