Cambridge passes bylaw to ban downtown injection sites

Cambridge city councillors have decided to spend $25,000 to hire a consultant to investigate potential locations for a supervised injection site in the city.

The decision comes after council passed a temporary bylaw to keepany injection site out of the three downtown cores and out of a 500 metre buffer zone around the cores.

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Councillor Frank Monteiro said the move responds to comments made at a public meeting a week ago, where councillors heard from that the public doesnot want a supervised injection site downtown.

Mindful of both sides

"We have to be mindful of not only the users they need help, they're dying but we have to be mindful of the people that live there. We have to listen to both sides," Monteirosaid.

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The city's decision was made Tuesday the same day Waterloo Regional Council discussed the location of supervised injection sites during a committee meeting.

Regional councillorsvoted to proceed with the second phaase of the project, which will consider up to three locationsfor the injection sites, including one location in Cambridge.

'Not circumventing the region'

During that meeting, Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig raised a motion asking the region to consult with the City of Cambridge on the location.

That motion was deferred until May or June, when a report of possible supervised injection locations will be presented to council.

"We're not circumventing the region," Monteiro said, regarding the mayor's motion and the city's new bylaw. "They're still going to do their work and then tell us what they came up with."

He added Cambridge wants to make sure they have some control over where to open the sites given the small area around each core.