Town hall meeting being set up to discuss drug crisis in Lethbridge

In previous meetings on the topic, council was reminded by staff that many attendees felt they were not given enough time to ask questions. Council agreed to look into ways of ensuring this is not the case this time around.

“So many people have the same question, so if that question, instead of us getting 300 calls, that person can ask the one question and all those people at that meeting can have the same answer,” says Councillor Blaine Hyggen.

“It’s not about shutting down the Supervised Consumption Site. It’s for questions to be asked and answers to come in because, I’ll be very honest with you, quite often, those individuals don’t understand, possibly, what that site is doing,” adds Hyggen.

Councillor Rob Miyashiro was the only member who was opposed to holding the town hall. He felt that, between different committee reports and actions taken by the various levels of government, a lot of work has already been done to resolve the drug situation.

Councillor Joe Mauro, on the other hand, disagreed. While he concedes that a lot has already happened, he says those strategies are simply not working.

Another point Miyashiro brought up is that he thought the town hall would turn into “dart throwing” pandemonium with people yelling at each other and throwing blame in all directions.

Hyggen told LNN that there might be a need for additional security at the meeting, but with a strong moderator, they should be able to keep the peace.

At the August 19th council meeting, the date for the town hall meeting is expected to be set.

by David Opinko

Town hall meeting being set up to discuss drug crisis in Lethbridge

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