A Trail city councillor says she’s happy the provincial government listened to municipalities concerned about how the decriminalization of certain drugs is playing out in their communities and will enact legislation further limiting where they can be used.
“I think in theory the program has potential,” Bev Benson says. “However, when municipalities lack the resources and tools to make it a success, it’s almost a set up for failure. You can’t just have pieces of it. You need everything in place.”
On Thursday, the NDP introduced legislation that would prohibit illicit drug use within a six-meter radius of both residential and commercial building entrances, six metres of bus stops and in parks, beaches and sports fields. Additionally, it would prohibit drug use within a 15-metre radius of locations exempt from decriminalization. Â
The announcement came a few weeks after Health Canada approved an amendment to the original decriminalization legislation that expanded the list of exempt areas to include play structures, spray parks, and skate parks.
Last week, Trail council adopted Benson’s motion for city staff to prepare a report on what the exemptions would look like in Trail. She asked where it would apply, noting Gyro Park has play structures, but Jubilee Park doesn’t, although the library uses the latter for programming.
Benson said Trail and other municipalities provided feedback to the province over the summer about how the three-year decriminalization pilot program is looking on the ground after the first few months.
“We specifically told them kids play in parks, and where kids play is what I would define as a playground,” she said. “Just because it doesn’t have a structure doesn’t mean it’s not. It sounds like they heard us.”
Benson said she wasn’t sure if the latest legislation makes her motion moot. She plans to raise it again at council next week.
In general, however, she said that when she receives corporate guidance in her job at Teck, it’s always studied through a departmental lens, and she brought the same approach to this issue.
“How does this affect us? Where does it affect us? We make sure it works for us here. It would be a nice process to have in the City of Trail when we get guidance on things that affect everybody in our community to have a community-specific view.”
