“Their lives matter. And we have to take a stand and say enough is enough.”
Melissa Hurst stood in front of a packed rotunda at Barrie’s city hall on Wednesday evening talking about the loss of her son.
“I went to wake him on Mother’s Day morning, and he had passed away. That is the day, that is the moment, that our lives changed forever. He died of an accidental overdose," she paused. "I miss him every single day.”
Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MP Alex Nuttall hosted the town hall to talk about the opioid crisis within the city and the chosen site for the proposed supervised consumption site (SCS).
“I don’t support an injection site in downtown Barrie,” he said. “We expected to see a lot of people being vocal about that, and we did, and I expected to see some people come out who just don’t know, and aren’t totally sure what’s going on, and they did.”
Hurst said it’s time to take more responsibility for the ongoing crisis. “It is my problem. It is your problem. It is our problem. It is our politician’s problems.”
Nuttall hopes to see a plan for services for the proposed injection site, but stated that 90 percent of the businesses he’s heard from say they don’t want it downtown.
He also said that most of the residents he’s spoken with want to focus more on rehabilitation and recovery instead of an injection site, but admits, he doesn't know the best way to tackle the issue and wants to see more done.
“The opioid crisis is just not getting the attention that it deserves,” he said. “I don’t know what the answer is, but we need to figure something out.”
On Wednesday a select committee announced that 90 Mulcaster Street was chosen as the preferred location for a proposed supervised consumption site. The space is inside the Canadian Mental Health Association facility. The committee took into consideration the proximity to schools, parks and other factors.
A neighbourhood information meeting will be held next month with the matter going to city council in early June.
