SCHOOL PARENTS GROUP OPPOSES LOCATION OF YOUTH DETOX CENTRE

Ask RM Not To Allow Location Next To School

A group of parents is opposing the construction of a detox centre next
to a schoolyard.

"Kids are not quite as equipped as we adults to be wise to dangers or
harm," said Dave Soubolsky, a board member of the Saskatoon Society
for Christian Education, which operates the Saskatoon Christian School.

"It's a good idea, but not beside a school."

The Saskatoon Health Region is planning to build a 24-bed drug and
alcohol detoxification centre for youth aged 12 to 17 years old. Most
of the beds will be allocated for youth who are seeking treatment, but
some will be used for youth who've been ordered into treatment by a
judge. The facility is one component of Project Hope, announced by
Premier Lorne Calvert in August 2005 and designed to tackle substance
abuse in the province.

In February, the Saskatoon Regional Health Authority approved the
purchase of 11.7 acres of land south of Highway 16 and east of Highway
11, at a cost of $332,100. The land, adjacent to the Saskatoon
Christian School, is zoned for agricultural use and must be approved
for institutional use by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park before
the health region can build the detox centre.

About four years ago, the parents' association received the same
approval from the RM to build the kindergarten to Grade 12 school,
which now has an enrolment of 256 students. Most of the students are
in the elementary grades.

Parents are turning their attention to the RM, writing letters
expressing their opposition to the health region's application for the
land to be approved for the detox centre.

"Children are the most vulnerable population and to situate an
addictions treatment centre beside a vulnerable population is not a
logical option," said a letter submitted by the board of the school.

The parents are worried the youth may wander from the treatment
facility to the schoolyard. They're also concerned that 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 school children into the drug field,"
said the letter.

But Greg Drummond, director of the health region's mental health and
addiction services, says the parents' concerns are unwarranted. For
the past 10 years, youth voluntarily receiving drug and alcohol
treatment have been housed at Calder Centre in the Eastview
neighbourhood.

"We have not had any experiences where anybody in that neighbourhood
has been exposed to any particular danger or risk because of the kinds
of issues the youth are involved in," said Drummond.

"We do not have any experience that the drug trade is interacting with
our treatment service."

If the youth pose any risk, it is to themselves, not others, as they
work through the issues that led to their abuse of drugs and alcohol,
he says.

The health region's request to the RM will be reviewed by the joint
City of Saskatoon and RM district planning council on April 11. That
council will then make a recommendation that will be considered by the
RM council at its regular meeting on April 16, says Glen Grismer,
director of planning for the RM of Corman Park.