Downtown Nanaimo's unsanctioned safe-consumption site isn't going anywhere anytime soon, according to those overseeing its operations.A white tent serving as a safe-consumption site has been operating out of a parking lot next to Nanaimo City Hall since it was erected on Boxing Day by Nanaimo Coun. Gord Fuller and a group of citizens. Fuller told the News Bulletin that he and others involved with the site are now looking at purchasing a trailer to replace the tent and have no plans to shutdown operations anytime soon.
"Myself and Coun. [Jim] Kipp are going to look at trailers today and we are hoping to have one by tomorrow. It will be located in the same location as people are starting to come here on a regular basis," he said.More people are visiting the site each day according to Fuller, who said Vancouver Island Health Authority has visited the unsanctioned site. "It's not a safety risk to people," he said. "VIHA came through, so it is not a health safety risk and as we know, it has the potential to save lives for anybody that has come through."
Jeremy Kalicum, co-ordinator of the unsanctioned site, said 97 consumptions have occurred at the site since it opened.
“That’s on par with what Victoria is doing down at their consumption site,” he said. “For the size of Nanaimo, that is a little bit above par.”There have been zero overdoses or fatalities according to Kalicum, who said more than 30 volunteers are helping out with the site and that many of them have medical training.
“We have nurses who are coming and volunteering and we have people who have experience giving naloxone that are coming to revive people,” he said. “As we go through we are getting more and more volunteers and donations are starting to pick up on our Go Fund Me page.”
The unsanctioned site's operation resulted in the City of Nanaimo closing down city hall and the Service and Resource Centre on Dec. 29. It also prompted Vancouver Island Health Authority to issue a statement expressing its intention to have a safe consumption site up and running within the first week of January, however that hasn’t happened yet.
Kalicum is critical of the City of Nanaimo’s recent actions, which includes erecting a sign informing the public of an unsanctioned safe consumption site operating out of the parking at city hall. He said he wants to see more leadership from the city on the issue of a safe consumption site in the community.
“I’d really like to see the city to get on board and start pushing forward to get a supervised safe consumption site setup,” he said.
Kalicum also said he wants to see Island Health be more upfront about when it will establish a site in Nanaimo. He acknowledges that it is trying, but wishes the health authority would hurry up or at the very least, work with his unsanctioned site.
“They really need to expedite things because people are dying on the streets,” he said.
Dr. Paul Hasselback, Island Health’s chief medical officer, told the News Bulletin that his organization is hoping to get something up and running with the coming weeks or months.“It is moving forward quickly,” he said. “What I’ve said to most people is weeks or months. If you ask a week from now I will have a lot more information than I do right now, that’s how quickly things are moving.”
The issue of safe consumption sites is expected to be addressed at a regularly scheduled City of Nanaimo council meeting on Monday (Jan. 9) and Hasselback said council will receive an opinion from him regarding the situation.Hasselback has visited the unsanctioned site multiple times. He said the site has undertaken "risk-limitation" steps to reduce the likelihood of a fatality."They are following better practices and they are limiting risk," he said. Hasselback said Island Health is aware of the need for supervised injection site, adding that the unsanctioned site has helped focus the community’s attention on the issue.
“The unsanctioned pop-up has certainly focused the community’s attention and helped mobilize the level of support that is indicative that we need one here and I think the community is saying that we need one here, too,” he said.
An unsanctioned safe-consumption site in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side recently received assistance from Vancouver Coastal Health, including medical supplies and paid staff.
Hasselback didn’t specifically indicate that Island Health would be assisting the organizers of the Nanaimo unsanctioned site in a similar fashion, but he did say the health authority has worked with other community groups.“This is not an Island Health facility. It is not operated by us, sanctioned by us, there is nobody from Island Health there,” he said. “But we go into a variety of other locations that are operated by community organizations, providing a variety of different services and this is just another location.”