‘You’re not going to get a fight from us,’ says Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, if Calgary’s drug site closes
The provincial government says the ball is in Calgary city council’s court.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says the ball is in the provincial government’s court.
This time, politics isn’t a blood sport, it’s tennis.
Now we’ve got ourselves a standoff happening, right after a column from your scribbler hit the streets Thursday morning.
The government will then bring in an alternative, still looking after those overdosing but with more emphasis on getting addicts off drugs for good.
Later on Thursday yours truly gets a call from Gondek.
The mayor says she is not going to go to war with the UCP government of Premier Danielle Smith if the province shuts down the drug site in Calgary.
In fact, Gondek says she believes the Chumir drug site is not working.
Guess that means the self-styled progressives will stop slamming me as a reactionary when I write exactly that thought as I have for years.
But the mayor is not supporting the idea of Calgary city council asking Smith to close the drug site.
Gondek says that’s not the city’s job. If Smith and her people want to close the drug site, close it. They don’t need the city’s thumbs-up.
“If you don’t want it there, then don’t have it there. You’re not going to get a fight from us,” says Gondek, to the Smith government.
“They have already said what’s happening at the Sheldon Chumir isn’t working. We should not have a safe consumption site there. OK. Great. We agree with you. What’s the alternative? That’s all I’m waiting to hear.
“We have sat with them many times and said: the Sheldon Chumir situation is not working.”
Of course, the mayor is not saying she opposes drug sites in Calgary.
Gondek has said she opposes one central drug site and has been told “a more distributed model” would be better.
So a battle brews on that front. That’s for another day.
As for the drug site at the Chumir, Gondek asks why city council would need to make a request to deep-six the drug site “when they’ve already said that’s what they wish to do. We agree with them. We are not the decision-makers here.
“We are not the ones that say we want to shut it down.
“We do not have the jurisdiction or the ability to say we want it to be here or we don’t want to be there. This is fully and squarely in the province’s jurisdiction.”
Your scribbler did ask Smith’s addictions minister about whether Gondek in the past ever stood in the way of moving the Chumir site.
Gondek confirms there were discussions about shutting down the Chumir site and seeking options at the Calgary Drop-In Centre and Alpha House but nothing happened.
Williams said those past chinwags were before his time.
So what if members of city council come forward wanting to ask the province to do away with the Calgary drug site?
Dan McLean is one Calgary councillor who goes on social media and asks: “Would you not agree that we need to shut down this unsafe consumption site?
“I’m more than happy to bring this forward to council and ask the province to shut it down.”
A debate at council over the Calgary drug site. This I have to see.
The mayor wants to make her point clear.
“I deal with things like water feeder mains. I deal with things like potholes. And I have a role to play in public safety.
“When it comes to health and addiction recovery, that is 100 per cent the province’s jurisdiction.
“We are absolutely at the table to tell them what we are seeing and what we are hearing but I can’t make the decision for them.”
So what does Gondek think of councillors wanting a vote on whether or not to ask the province to get rid of the drug site?
“My position is it seems awfully redundant.”
Still, you have to wonder. How would city council vote?