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By David Opinko

Saamis Employment “shocked” to learn their location might be sold for harm reduction site

Feb 5, 2021 | 3:12 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – “Saamis Aboriginal Employment is not going to become a harm reduction site.”

A local media report Friday morning had a headline reading, “Application made for harm reduction site,” and immediately below the headline in that publication’s web article, there was a photo of Saamis Aboriginal Employment.

Executive Director Anita Wagar says this has lead to many people incorrectly assuming that Saamis had changed their mandate from being an employment agency to one that provides harm reduction services.

She spent much of the morning fielding calls from residents and partner groups, explaining that they have and will have no involvement with the proposed site.

“We didn’t have any information about the site [nor] the landlord trying to bring a harm reduction site to the area.”

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Wagar explained that their lease originally expired for 422 13 Street North in October 2020, but it was extended to March 31, 2021. She was of the understanding that they would have a month-to-month rental agreement for the foreseeable future.

“The landlord was hoping for something that Saamis couldn’t provide her, and unfortunately, I think she just went shopping around and that’s what she brought to town.”

Calgary-based HIV Community Link has applied to the City of Lethbridge for a development permit for a proposed harm reduction site. LNN has reached out to the organization to learn more about the project.

Wagar was informed later in the day that HIV Community Link has provided a deposit for the location, so she has been “scrambling” to find a new home for her group.

She does not believe, however, that this location would be a good fit for a harm reduction facility, saying that it could exacerbate existing issues like homelessness and substance use.

“The area in and of itself already has a problem and I think bringing a harm reduction site to the area is going to cause harm to other small businesses like the [Jonny Bean Coffee] next door and the financial institute that are already struggling. That street, it’s not big business there, it’s all small business owners.”

In the five years that Saamis has operated on 13 Street North, she says they have had to phone the police numerous times for a variety of reasons.

This Christmas, they closed for 10 days, and when they reopened, Wagar discovered that a group of homeless people were living on the roofs of their business and the one next door, “and it looked like they had been up there for quite some time.”

She says they will be spending the next couple of weeks looking for a new location.