The director of an Association for the Improvement of Business in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) wants Kelowna companies to welcome a monitored drug consumption facility in downtown Okanagan.
Landon Hoyt, executive director of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Area, said a supervised injection site would likely mean fewer people using drugs in public, reducing crime and making the streets in the area cleaner.
“In our view, the injection site itself has not had a negative impact on the business world [in the DTES,]“Hoyt said in an interview with Daybreak South on CBC Radio One.
A site owned by the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society on Leon Avenue in Kelowna has been named as the proposed site for a supervised injection site. (Jaimie Kehler)
“Any kind of street disorder that exists now – people injecting themselves on the sidewalks in front of shops, producing trash, whatever – they are being taken to a safe, covered injection site where it doesn’t happen on the street.”
The Home Health Agency is considering opening a supervised drug use facility at the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society on Leon Avenue in downtown Kelowna along with a location in Kamloops, BC
Undermines security, says biz group
The Downtown Kelowna Association (DKA) – a non-profit association for business improvement – rejects the Leon Avenue location, as does the owner of two restaurants on Leon Avenue that are opposite the planned location.
This area of Leon Avenue could soon be Kelowna’s first supervised injection site, and some local businesses aren’t happy about it. (Google Street View)
The DKA assumes that the monitored drug consumption center undermines public safety and brings revitalization efforts in the neighborhood to a standstill.
Restaurateur Nick Sintichackis would rather have a mobile facility than a permanent location on Leon Avenue to distribute service across the city.
Businesses should praise the proposal
Hoyt said Vancouver’s Insite monitored injection site in downtown Eastside had improved the neighborhood rather than made it more dangerous or less attractive.
“We have a lot of restaurants and cafes and things like that,” said Hoyt.
“If anything, Kelowna companies should praise a proposal to introduce an injection site.”
Thursday was the final day for public contributions – through the Interior Health website – to the proposed Kelowna and Kamloops locations.
With files from Daybreak South from CBC Radio One.
