“Not there”: Dawson Creek council frustrated by lack of consultation on temporary OPS location

DAWSON CREEK, B.C. – Dawson Creek could be the home of two Overdose Prevention Sites that want to help people who use drugs in the community do so safely. However, questions of location and consultation—including public opinion on where these sites should be—have kept one of the sites from opening a temporary location.

Delegations from Northern Health, which intends to open a specialized healthcare site that will provide overdose prevention services, and SNOW house, a peer-run OPS site that has been working in the community for a year and a half, presented at Dawson Creek City Council on Monday morning.

Members of council were aware of the overdose crisis affecting their community and their region. They said the work the sites have been able to do in the community by preventing overdoses and providing other care for drug users was appreciated. 

Councillors also gave weight to concerns from residents and business owners of increased drug use, decreased community safety, and used paraphernalia found in the community.

City councillor Sharly Wilbur, seeking a way to support both parts of the city and disappointed by the lack of consultation, put it bluntly during the council meeting.

“How do we support you in your work and what you do, but also how do we support our businesses?” she said.

Location, Location, Location

The tension between public opinion, council, and the care that the two different OPS sites provide to people who use drugs was brought to a head recently after SNOW House was forced to relocate after an accidental electrical fire made their previous space temporarily unusable.

To be effective sites, OPS locations must be in places where people who need their services already are, according to the Northern Health delegation’s presentation to council.

“The best location for these sites is where people already are,” one of the delegates said. “Where people are comfortable to come and see you. We have to develop those relationships, develop that trust.”

In Dawson Creek, both sites in question sit near or inside the downtown area. They provide different services (Northern Health involves more healthcare-focused services in a shelter scenario, while SNOW House provides peer counsel and trained overdose emergency care) and hold different hours.

SNOW House relocated from their previous address—a distance of almost two blocks—after the fire. Council notes that this is a “business corridor” and a busier, more public location. There was little concern over the house’s previous operation.

After the fire, Peer Lead of SNOW House Lyric Parnham said it was a “mad scramble” to find a temporary usable space—conscientious of the lives that could be lost while the house was shuttered. SNOW House reversed five to seven overdoses a day over its last few months of operation.

Though opening SNOW House was based on the society’s own public consultation, none was held about the hurried move. 

Parnham, based on conversations with the city in November, thought that the new location would be fine for the time being since it was in the same zone the society thought they were approved to operate in.

Though council stated their support for this type of service, the temporary location of SNOW House was unacceptable because of it’s proximity to the public view.

“Not there,” Mayor Bumstead said. “Not there.”

Concerns voiced by Council

Council was frustrated with the lack of communication and consultation it was involved in prior to the Northern Health site’s plans and SNOW House’s relocation after the accidental electrical fire. 

This resulted in the house’s new, temporary location being shut down by the city before it opened. Whether or not there is legal authority to do so is a question currently under investigation. 

Citing the apprehension of people and business owners in the community, Councillor Jerimy Earl said that trust must be built up in communities surrounding these sites— instead of just “showing up without proper communication, without proper consultation.”

Mayor Dale Bumstead shared similar concerns and noted that it was council’s responsibility to represent the people who voted for them. He noted a gallery full of those concerned over OPS sites near their homes and businesses.

“The people that are here today and are concerned, obviously, with the evidence and the public viewings that they’re experiencing—both in their personal lives and their businesses. They elect us as their elected leaders to represent them,” he said. 

Both SNOW House and Northern Health’s OPS site also serve members of the community, many of whom may vote in municipal elections.

“I don’t think any of us discount the fact that this is a serious issue that we’re dealing with, with the opioid deaths that we’re seeing in our community, our region, our province, and our nation,” the mayor said.

The best location for an OPS site, he continued, addressing the delegation from Northern Health, “can’t be parochially just at your own viewpoint. It has to take the consideration of our community into that discussion.” 

Overdose Prevention Site operations in Dawson Creek

The delegation from Northern Health outlined the research behind OPS in Canada, and noted that the results of “countless research projects” are supportive of the service and do not negatively impact community safety.

The delegation outlined the need for overdose prevention and wraparound services within the continuing opioid and drug toxicity crisis: these services, according to the presentation, save lives, help people find healthcare, and reduce the burden on the healthcare system.

The South Peace Community Action Team has operated SNOW House, which received a letter of support from Northern Health last year, since last winter. It runs the site after-hours, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday.

“Our services is for folks with lived and living experience,” Parnham explained to the council on Monday. “They come to us for meals. They come to us for laundry. They come to us to have their drugs checked, for wound care.”

Those who work at the house also have Naloxone, a medication used to counteract the effects of opioids, and are trained to use it in the event of an overdose. 

Northern Health’s proposed site would be in a shelter setting and provide what one of the delegates called “a wraparound service,” which is run during the day by healthcare professionals. It can connect someone who uses drugs with health and mental healthcare and other services as necessary.