By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

City Council backing Grande Prairie’s grant application to create Intermunicipal Opioid Response

Feb 19, 2019 | 2:20 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Lethbridge City Council unanimously voted to endorse an application by the City of Grande Prairie for an Alberta Community Partnership grant to develop an Intermunicipal Opioid Response on Tuesday, Feb. 19.

The City of Grande Prairie is submitting the grant application, with support from Lethbridge, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Airdrie, Leduc, Red Deer, and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, for funds to enable the development of a coordinated response to address the gaps in programs and services in these communities to deal with the drug crisis.

Mayor Chris Spearman says this is all about cities collaborating and sharing practices as well as what programs are available in each city.

“It’s eight cities participating, and it was initiated by Grande Prairie Mayor Bill Given recognizing that all cities have issues with the drug crisis, and to recommend a coordinated approach between the cities and the provincial government.”

Given’s letter to the various mayors and councils onboard acknowledged that while this public health issue is outside the typical sphere of municipal jurisdiction, it’s none the less putting a strain on civic resources.

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That includes emergency first responders, public works, transit, housing, parks, planning, FCSS, and many others.

As each community attempts to tackle the issue, they’re hoping to generate new knowledge and develop promising practices that could benefit other cities.

The City of Grande Prairie will provide all the coordination, which is why they’re asking for a provincial grant and asking that the other seven cities support them in that application. They’re not requesting any financial contribution from the supporting municipalities.

While Spearman wasn’t sure of the total amount being sought for this grant, typically they’re in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.

Conceptually, the project would be time-limited to a period of 15 to 18 months and include a dedicated position focused on building connections and sharing information across Alberta communities.

With a number of the larger cities on board, a letter has been sent to the City of Edmonton as well but they’re not formally on board yet, the hope is the province will take notice.

“The province stands to benefit by getting information from people on the ground,” Spearman explained. “How are the cities being adversely affected? I think we all have our own experiences.”

So, what might Lethbridge’s contribution to the discussions talk about?

“How we’ve enhanced the police presence in the downtown, we’ve involved a voluntary taskforce as well as the use of peace officers to really get a handle on the drug problem and provide more visibility in the downtown. The challenge of the drug crisis has been the number of people affected, the number of people who are visibly using drugs and how do we manage that situation,” Spearman said.