Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas is asking Health Canada to deny the 2027 renewal of a supervised drug consumption site in the city’s downtown, citing thousands of police and emergency calls since the site’s opening.
“There’s nothing safe about a site that creates disorder for the surrounding community,” Dyas wrote on social media about the supervised consumption site operating at Outreach Urban Health, located at 1649 Pandosy Street.
Dyas wrote that the site had resulted in a “significant impact on crime rates, expressions of community opposition, and gaps in the legislated engagement and consultation.”
Previous requests to the B.C. government and the province’s Interior Health to voluntarily remove the site had not resulted in action or a “substantive response” despite the city council providing data-driven information, he wrote. …