Provincial Health Minister doubles grant funding for Lethbridge to deal with opioid crisis
LETHBRIDGE – Provincial Health Minister Sarah Hoffman announced Friday, that the province will give the City of Lethbridge another $80,000 to deal with issues surrounding the opioid crisis.
In a letter to Mayor Chris Spearman, Hoffman said the money provided is in addition to $80,000 in emergency funding that was already given to the city in recent weeks to deal with needle debris, for a total of $160,000.
Hoffman made the comments to Lethbridge media, who were contacted about participating in a brief, 15-minute news conference.
“I want everyone to know that I believe ARCHES has done really important work around saving lives, including providing supervised consumption services and needle exchange programs,” she told reporters. “And that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been proud to support them. But also want everyone in the community to know that we support them, and that finding needle debris is an item of concern for us.”