(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)
May 27, 2019 - 4:15 PM
VERNON - The people will have an opportunity to have a say on the location of a proposed safe injection site in Vernon as city council decides to hold a town hall meeting on the subject.
Why hold the meeting, along with when and where to hold it was debated at great length during council's May 14 meeting. Today, May 27, council voted unanimously without any debate, agreeing to hold the meeting at the Vernon Recreation Centre, June 4.
The town hall meeting will allow Vernon residents and business owners to voice their concerns and solutions on crime, vagrancy, open drug use and the proposed overdose prevention site and the negative impacts on the downtown.
Earlier in the meeting Coun. Scott Anderson presented a petition containing over 300 signatures asking to keep the overdose prevention site out of Vernon's downtown.
The concept of a town hall meeting had been criticized previously by some councillors who questioned the use of holding the meeting when similar meetings had been held previously.
Vernon Mayor Victor Cumming said previously he did not support town hall meetings saying the results from the meetings had a tendency to be skewed. It was also widely discussed as to why hold the meeting when Interior Health had already decided to open an overdose prevention site and council were powerless to prevent it.
The town hall meeting will take place at the Vernon Recreation Centre on Tuesday, June 4, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
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