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.