Pubdate: Thu, 12 Apr 2007
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2007 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Janet French, The StarPhoenix
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

RM'S DECISION ON DETOX CENTRE EXPECTED IN MAY

The Rural Municipality of Corman Park council will vote in the third 
week of May on whether to allow construction of a new youth drug 
treatment centre on land next to the Saskatoon Christian School, the 
Saskatoon Health Region (SHA) says.

Shan Landry, vice-president of community services for the SHA, said 
at Wednesday's health region board meeting that staff are trying to 
assuage any fears the detox centre will pose a danger to its neighbours.

Board members asked Landry questions about who is worried about the 
centre, whether opposition to the project is growing or subsiding and 
whether a fence could be installed around the centre to separate the 
facility from the school.

Landry didn't know whether a fence is possible. Work on the 
preliminary design for the facility is still taking place.

There will be staff at the site around the clock, she said. She also 
pointed to Calder Centre, an addiction treatment centre currently 
operating in Eastview. Neighbours there support the facility and have 
had no security problems, she said.

It's hard to tell whether concern is waning, but the amount of 
opposition is "considerable," Landry said.

The region has its sights on an 11.7-acre parcel of land southeast of 
the city for a 24-bed youth stabilization centre for teens with 
addiction problems. Six of those beds will be for kids who have been 
ordered into treatment by a judge.

The proposal has raised the ire of some of the parents of the 256 
students who attend the Saskatoon Christian School, located next to 
the site of the proposed detox centre.

Parents are worried youth may wander from the treatment facility to 
the schoolyard. They're also concerned visitors to the centre will 
include drug dealers, enabling the youth to use drugs while in treatment.

"The proximity of such a unit to the school portends a viable ground 
for recruitment of vulnerable schoolchildren into the drug fi eld," 
the school's board wrote in a letter to the RM. The Saskatchewan 
Party has also said it opposes the proposed detox centre's location.

Health region board member Steven Tokarski wanted to know if the 
region has another site in mind, should the current location not work out.

Landry said the current proposed site is ideal for the centre, 
because it's close to the city but in a natural setting that will 
give patients room for recreation and cultural activities outside.

"We have not, at this time, got a whole other series of options," 
Landry said. "It will certainly be our intention, if this is not 
approved . . . to look in that surrounding area and look in Corman 
Park and say, 'Is there something else?' " A joint planning 
commission will look at the health region's proposal for the land in 
the second week of May, Landry said.

During the third week of May, the region will give a presentation on 
the centre at a public hearing, and then the RM council will vote on 
whether to allow a zoning change that would permit the health region 
to build the detox centre.

The new youth stabilization centre is part of the province's Project 
Hope strategy announced in 2005 to tackle substance abuse and 
addiction across Saskatchewan.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman