If there's a consumption and treatment services site near Downtown Guelph, why are people still using drugs around the core?
The question is quite common for Guelph police Cst. Connor Vaivods.
The answer can be a number of things, as he explained to the Guelph Police Services board Thursday afternoon.
Vaivods has been in the role of downtown resource officer for the last 10 months, and from what he can see and hear, the pressing concern is the barriers preventing drug users from going to the CTS.
One of the biggest remains the embarrassment of going into a CTS, because he said it's obvious what that person is doing, not to mention the entrance of the Guelph Community Health Centre at 176 Wyndham St. N., is on a main street near a busy intersection.
"Anyone who looks over and happens to see you walk through that door, they know what you're doing," he told the board. "There's no hiding from it. Your secret's out."
One story he heard from a nearby business owner is they saw someone they knew from high school go in.
"When the user saw them, (they) immediately apologized for being a user and said 'please don't tell anyone else from high school,'" he recalled.
It should be noted that the building houses a variety of health services that people entering could be there for.
Compare that to the library, Vaivods said, where users could come up with a different reason for being there than using drugs in a bathroom.
He added that a lot of users he's spoken to don't want to be addicted, and that going to jail is the only time they can be clean.
He also sensed low self esteem and self-loathing.
Other reasons centre around the professional setting of a CTS, it being clinical and structured as a medical facility, as well as the monitoring from staff.
"This is a facility that is catering to people who have lived a lot of their lives lacking structure, making it more of a foreign setting and something that can feel quite uncomfortable," Vaivods said.
He also cited many users suffering from mental health attacks, and illnesses like schizophrenia, where being in a medical facility could be a source of trauma for them.
There's also rules that aren't too appetizing, from only two users being allowed to use drugs at the site at once, resulting in wait times, to no smoking inside the CTS.
Sgt. Gregory MacDonald highlighted the human dignity piece, and another branch to the complex issue: less availability of services such as washrooms, showers and other basic human needs.
"One of the concerns we struggle with downtown … is people bathing in the fountain downtown, where we're actually cleaning it now regularly because people are bathing there," he said.
"The question is, where is their opportunity to have a shower and get clean?"
He said for example, the Stepping Stone has shower facilities for clients, but can only be used between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
MacDonald said "we had to make adjustments because of COVID-19, but we haven't adjusted back and it can have an impact on how the homeless population is serviced."
Mayor Cam Guthrie was looking to understand the enforcement angle, and wondering how things have gone with a second resource officer deployed before the summer, whether there is value in having that second officer and what is coming up next.
"The information we're providing today is to try to give our community a holistic understanding of the why, and of the why this is happening," Chief Gord Cobey replied. "All the situations and all the variables that are leading to your question with respect to enforcement."
One thing that was also pointed out in respect to enforcement, was how in Aug. 2020, federal drug prosecutors were told to avoid prosecuting simple drug possession charges, except in the most serious of circumstances, including if a child was at risk, if there was a weapon involved, someone was driving or if there were threats or acts of violence.
"There's no sense charging somebody, wasting paper or time, putting them into the court system and then have a Crown attorney say 'well they shouldn't be here,'" said deputy chief Daryl Goetz.
