CITY SHOULD GIVE UP IN METHADONE FIGHT

Clinic Well Within Rights to Operate Downtown

By the time the City's fight to prevent First Step methadone clinic
from moving into downtown Oshawa comes to an end, the final bill for
taxpayers could hit half-a-million dollars.

That's the informal estimate a City councillor has come up with to
tally up the total cost for all the studies, legal bills and appeals
in addition to paying the legal costs for the clinic (should the City
lose its Ontario Municipal Board appeal).

After the City went to extraordinary lengths to stop First Step's move
by implementing an interim control bylaw, which was defeated in August
by an OMB board, there was an opportunity to make peace with the move.
But council decided to battle on with an appeal.

Some may feel this is a colossal waste of money in what many believe
is a futile fight to prevent the downtown operation of a legitimate
and legal medical clinic.

First Step, building permit in hand after winning the right to locate
to 32 Simcoe St. S. in a battle with the City at the OMB, finally made
its long-awaited move this past Monday.

The appeal decision is still pending and First Step might have to move
elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the owners, who operated without incident at the corner of
King Street West and Nassau Street for five years, have spent $75,000
in improving the Simcoe location.

The latest wrinkle in the City-clinic battle is a letter to the City
this September by First Step owner Fred Lorusso, offering to negotiate
the possibility of another location. Mr. Lorusso, who made the query
through his lawyer, said the City never got back to him. He finally
decided to move on without any more delays.

Methadone, for some councillors, has become a symbol of all that holds
Oshawa's downtown back. A few councillors have suggested the area
around the clinic will become a drug hangout, a haven for crime, at
the very least a blight on businesses nearby.

But if the experiences at the King Street West location offer any
evidence it's that most of those who use the clinic will quietly go
about their business of learning to live addiction-free and life will
go on much as it has in downtown Oshawa for decades.

The City would be wise to drop its wasteful appeal and cut its losses.
Too much good taxpayer money has been put after bad in a cause that
has few real benefits for anyone.