The Kamloops Medical Health Officer says there will be a meeting in the near future to bring the City of Kamloops up to speed on the work being done on the ongoing drug crisis and its impacts on the community.

“I have been in conversation with the mayor and we have a larger meeting for city council and city staff as well as a number of IH team members to really dig down and work on this issue,” Dr. Carol Fenton said on NL Newsday.

That issue is a proposed bylaw amendment that would outlaw the use of illicit drugs in public parks and facilities, put forward by Councillor Katie Neustaeter.

“I consider Councillor Neustaeter an ally and we want the same things and I look forward to working with her more on this issue,” Fenton said. “My personal and professional goal is for everyone to feel healthy and safe. I want everyone to enjoy parks and playgrounds appropriately. If that is not happening, I want solutions that are effective and safe for everybody.”

“You know my expertise makes me a useful person for my municipalities and others to really look at all of the interventions that we have available to us, and connect more effectively with our partners that we need to implement these,” Fenton added.

“It’s a big wicked problem. There is no easy silver bullet fast solution, so we need to work together.”

Fenton previously told NL News that she opposed that ban as she felt it was a step too far, noting instead the City should look at expanding existing programs like more safe consumption sites.

Her comments drew the ire of Kamloops councillor, Bill Sarai, who alleged that IH only offers solutions that are “enabling” and that the drug crisis in Kamloops has only gotten worse over the past five years.

It is not clear when this meeting will take place, though its believed to be in the works for sometime in June. That would put it near the end of the six-month period in which Interior Health told all municipalities in its jurisdiction to not bring in any bylaws connected to decriminalization.

In a statement to RadioNL, the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions confirmed that the letter sent by Interior Health was not done at a provincial level, meaning that six-month window is not a Ministry mandate.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Sarai said he thought Interior Health’s ask of municipalities is “off base,” noting many other delegates heading to this week’s Southern Interior Local Government Association convention feel the same way.

“Nobody came forward until after we voted on it and now to say we need six months to study the impact on the street, this law came out a year ago,” Sarai said, noting that request for a six month wait was “surprising.”

“Was there no study done before you implemented the law and if there was no study done then, what have we done in the last six months that it’s been out there.”

He says the City of Kamloops doesn’t want to fine or imprison people who are using drugs in public, adding they want those people to get the help they need.

“I live in this town, I drive the streets. I’m not afraid to walk the streets at night but there are a lot people that are and there’s a lot of people that are taken aback by what’s happening in our school grounds and our parks,” Sarai said.

“That does not need a six month study, that should be prevalent of anybody that lives here and cares about our city, so I have trouble with that.”

Neustaeter also told NL News that the six-month window was “unacceptable.”

“I came here to do a job and I was really clear about what it would be. This was a big part of what I wrote in my platform and I am going to do what I said I am going to do, and I only have four years to do it,” she said.

Asked how much the decision to amend bylaws in places like Kamloops and the six-month moratorium could be linked to the decriminalization pilot in B.C., and growing concerns about crime and community safety, Fenton said it was an “excellent question.”

“I’d love to dig into it further with our municipal partners,” she said, noting not all drug users are criminals. “There is a Venn diagram and there is some overlap, but we need to make sure that we’re not conflating the two.”

The opposition BC United used a good portion of its time during Monday afternoon’s question period to call out the BC government over its opposition to bylaws connected to decriminalization.

Pressed on the issue of banning drug use in public spaces, Premier David Eby did concede that policies surrounding decriminalization can be changed.

Treatment Centres in B.C. Interior to be discussed at SILGA

As for the SILGA convention, he notes there are a number of topics to discuss, including lobbying the Province to invest in on-demand mental health treatment centres in the Interior.

“When we say on demand, every municipality, village, district, town, has individuals on our street that do not have the capability of making sound decisions for their own safety or the safety of the community,” Sarai said. “We need to lobby the government that they need to intervene.”

Sarai says if the government can take away driver’s licenses from the elderly or put them in extended care, he wonders why there isn’t the same compassionate rule for people on the streets who cannot take care of themselves.

– With files from Bill Cowen and Brett Mineer