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3| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,June 21,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca From the latest information on local politics, to minor sports scores, to what's going on down the street, visit www.waterloochronicle.ca CONNECTED TO YOUR COMMUNITY CITY NEWS Visit waterloochronicle.ca for more coverage There may be as many as four potential super- vised injection sites in Wa- terloo Region pending re- gional council approval - two in Kitchener and two in the Galt area of Cam- bridge. The regional staff re- port recommending that council approve the next step of the process - essen- tially consultations with the community around those sites - was released late Friday. There is one site in Kitchener that has been confirmed as a legitimate possibility, according to various criteria, at 115 Wa- ter St. N. In Cambridge, the two potential sites are in Galt - at 150 Main St. as well as 149 Ainslie St. N. There is one more site in Kitchener that has yet to be identified, but re- gional staff are awaiting confirmation from the site's landlord that a su- pervised consumption site would be acceptable. That supervised con- sumption site would work in partnership with San- guen Health Centre, which already does out- reach work with people living on the street and in harm reduction. The two Cambridge sites are still up in the air, however. Cambridge city council has passed an in- terim control bylaw, which essentially allows it to block any supervised consumption sites in the community's three down- town cores. Regional Chair Ken Seiling hopes that the two potential sites - which are the only two viable spots according to the strict cri- teria - are acceptable to Cambridge city council. Seiling said Cambridge has "agreed to work with the region." "We're obviously looking for input from Cambridge itself," said Seiling. "One of the issues is that the site has to be in a location that's useful. But the indication that we have from Cambridge is they're prepared to work with us." If regional councillors move forward with the plan and it eventually gets to the point of applying for provincial and federal ap- proval, Cambridge would have to lift the interim control bylaw. That wouldn't happen until site-specific plans and analysis are complet- ed and approved by coun- cil later on in the process, likely months from now. Candidate sites • 115 Water St. N., Kitch- ener, is a two-storey house where The Working Cen- tre will service as the land- lord. The building will need renovations to ac- commodate the integrated service model. The building is accessi- ble by transit and is near other services that are used by drug users. • 150 Main St., Cam- bridge, is a multi-tenant, multi-floored regional building that provides an- onymity to people access- ing services. The super- vised consumption site would occupy a unit that is available on the main floor at the back of the building. • 149 Ainslie St. N., Cam- bridge, is a multi-tenant building located in an area that would be accessible for the target population. The unit would be on the main floor. An implementation work group started with 29 potential sites from ei- ther members' own ideas or from the public - 20 in Cambridge and nine in Kitchener. Once applied to the provincial and federal site criteria for supervised consumption sites, 15 were removed from the list of Cambridge sites. The work group then hired a real estate agent to research properties and see if they were available for lease or rent, which re- moved two potential sites from Cambridge and also added another. Eight sites in Kitchener were re- moved from the list and one was added. After various rounds of stakeholder consultation, the group was left with two viable locations in both cities. All sites would include integrated health-care programs as mandated by the provincial govern- ment. Those services in- clude first aid, education on safer injection, provi- sion and disposal of sterile injection supplies, distri- bution of naloxone, as well as referrals to other health and social services. While some residents have been outspoken against the idea of super- vised consumption sites, many others are on board with the idea. Several community agencies have also stepped forward to partner with the Region of Waterloo to provide a full complement of services as well. Primary care would be provided by Langs Com- munity Health Centre in Cambridge and the Kitch- ener Downtown Commu- nity Health Centre in Kitchener. Treatment services would be provided by the House of Friendship, and opioid-replacement thera- py services would be pro- vided by the Ontario Ad- diction Treatment Cen- tres. Grace Bermingham, manager of information, planning and harm reduc- tion, wouldn't say what the community response would be to the potential sites. "The purpose really of the consultation is to do that work," said Berming- ham. "Consultation through this whole pro- cess will be crucial. We've had such great interest in this issue across the re- gion." If the plan is approved by council, regional staff will move to conduct ex- tensive community con- sultation around the se- lected sites. A report will be brought back to region- al council within the next few months before staff moves along with the next part of the plan, which would include site-specif- ic renovations and work that would need to be com- plete. The region's Com- munity Services Commit- tee voted on the recom- mendation on Tuesday, re- ceiving opposition to the Cambridge portion of the plan from Mayor Doug Craig. According to coroner's office statistics, the death rate from 2017 - originally estimated at 71 - has climbed to 85. So far this year, paramedic respons- es to overdoses has in- creased 17 per cent over the 2017 rate. Regional staff recommend four supervised consumption sites The Region of Waterloo has released a report identifying potential supervised injection sites, including two for Cambridge. Adam Jackson/Metroland Pending approval by regional council, regional staff will explore specific locations - two in downtown Kitchener and two in Galt ADAM JACKSON ajackson@waterloochronicle.ca