By Lara Fominoff @LaraFominoff on Twitter

Provincial Health Minister doubles grant funding for Lethbridge to deal with opioid crisis

Jul 20, 2018 | 2:58 PM

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.” 

The new funding can be used for a variety of purposes, including increasing the number of needle repositories, further expanding needle sweeps in the community, or to establish “community action teams.”

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Mayor Chris Spearman wrote to the health minister recently, requesting information regarding jurisdictional authority, as City Council will debate on Monday, July 23, whether the it has the authority to restrict needle distribution programs – namely whether council can pass a bylaw directing ARCHES to restrict its needle distribution.

The letter sent to the mayor states:

“The Municipal Government Act (MGA) provides local councils with broad decision-making authority in governing the municipality. Under the MGA, a council may pass bylaws about the safety, health, and welfare of local residents, and protection of property. This broad bylaw-making authority is not without its limits, and ultimately, if challenged, the decision about whether a municipality can enact a particular bylaw is a matter for the courts. We encourage you to engage your City Solicitor in any consideration of a bylaw of this nature.”

The letter also states that there is clear evidence supporting the effectiveness of unrestricted needle distribution programs in preventing disease and injury. While the Minister couldn’t provide specific examples of communities where restricting needle access to illicit drug users resulted in the increase of HIV, Hepatitis C during the news conference, a member of her communications team later provided this from the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Minister Hoffman was also asked about what the government’s role was for users outside of the supervised consumption site.

While many businesses in the immediate area of the SCS have said they support harm reduction, the activities that occurred outside of the doors of the SCS had become detrimental to business owners. Was there a plan in place to deal with the clients after they use and why are business owners being asked to come up with a solution to a problem that they didn’t create?

“I’d really be happy for our office to follow up with those specific business owners that have raised those concerns…I do want to acknowledge that folks who are using at supervised consumption services were using the substances, but in back alleys, or in front of the businesses or in homes by themselves where they were at far greater risk of overdose, so it isn’t that people have started using because the site it open, it’s that people are using in a supervised way with clean equipment that reduces the risk for them and for the community. And certainly, we’ll be happy to follow up with specific businesses around concerns that they have raised and to work with local police and the municipality to ensure safety for all.”

Hoffman also mentioned opportunities in the future for specific outreach strategies in the community around showing respect for the neighboring businesses.

Five Lethbridge news organizations, including LethbridgeNewsNOW took part in the conference with the Health Minister, but were limited to one question each.