Pubdate: Wed, 05 Mar 2003
Source: Oshawa This Week (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 Oshawa This Week
Contact:  http://www.durhamregion.com/dr/info/oshawa/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1767
Author: Martin Derbyshire

COUNCILLOR QUESTIONS METHADONE REPORT

But Consultant Says Clinic's Location Not Problematic

OSHAWA - The draft summary of a City-commissioned consultants' study 
suggests the downtown may very well be an appropriate location for a 
methadone clinic.

But, while the local clinic's owner claims the study vindicates him, one of 
Oshawa council's more vocal opponents to the opiate addiction treatment 
centre's relocation said errors in the draft might call into question some 
of its conclusions.

The study itself stems from the City's interim-control bylaw blocking the 
move of King Street's First Step Medical Clinic, which provides methadone 
maintenance therapy to opiate addicts, to a downtown location on Simcoe 
Street north of Athol.

The bylaw was removed by the Ontario Municipal Board this summer and the 
clinic has been open and running downtown since November, but the OMB's 
decision is still being appealed by the City.

The draft summary of the study claims concerns with the clinic are largely 
based on a perceived impact and the report indicates methadone clinics need 
downtown locations because of their accessibility.

The summary also suggests there is little or no empirical evidence to 
suggest any sustained economic impact from a methadone clinic on local 
businesses.

In fact, to determine what the impact of the clinic might be, the 
consultants went about surveying comparable clinics throughout the province.

They looked for downtown locations or those close to downtowns, with 
significant pedestrian activity and a similar mix of land uses to the 
Oshawa area.

In looking at nine other clinics, they interviewed the owners, local 
police, chambers of commerce, business improvement area (BIA) 
representatives, municipal economic development and planning departments.

What they discovered was in most cases, the economic development and 
planning departments either did not know the clinics existed or they were 
not an issue in the community.

And, any negative economic impacts cited by BIAs and chambers of commerce 
were notational with nothing concrete reported.

In all the municipalities surveyed, the consultants said police were 
concerned, but in very few cases were there actual issues or specific 
incidents originating from the clinic.

With respect to neighbouring businesses, the impacts were felt mostly by 
coffee shops and restaurants in the immediate areas and were described as 
minimal.

Despite the fact the Oshawa clinic is one of the larger locations 
consultants came across, they say even that will have little or no effect 
on the community impacts.

"We've been vindicated," said First Step president Fred Lorusso. "The 
report confirms we have every right to be there...we've been open since 
November with no problems and we were at the King Street location for five 
years and nobody knew we existed...this big stink shouldn't have been 
brought up at all."

However, Councillor Louise Parkes, who has actively fought the clinic's 
relocation, claims she has amassed no less then 17 pages full of errors 
contained in the draft summary.

"These are fairly serious factual errors I think would affect the 
conclusions," she said. "The study is not complete. There are many factual 
errors and they may have implications on the assumptions made."

Among the specific errors she mentions are a reference in the report to the 
four corners of downtown Oshawa containing three banks when there are only 
two, another reference to a new office building at Simcoe and Bond that 
does not exist and a third to the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce's 
fight to get the regional headquarters built in downtown Oshawa, when they 
actually only fought not to have it built in Whitby.

Coun. Parkes also refutes a statistic in the report stating there are 8,000 
methadone patients in the Greater Toronto Area when she claims there are 
only 7,500 in the entire province.

Consultant Scott Burns of the Planning Partnership said the errors were not 
significant enough to affect the conclusions reached in the study. He added 
he would welcome council's input in making the appropriate changes.

While the draft of the report indicates downtown is an appropriate location 
for the clinic it does recommend addressing the potential for an impact on 
the community through mitigating measures like working together to move it 
to a location off of a main street at the City's cost and possibly asking 
the clinic to open a coffee and smoking room and a back door for patients.

The consultants are being asked to fix the factual errors in the report, 
consider the City councillor's comments and the results of an economic 
impact study on the downtown before releasing the final draft.
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MAP posted-by: Alex