On Monday night, City council gave direction to City administration to prepare potential licensing bylaw amendments regarding mobile supervised consumption services.

The bylaw changes passed, recognizing that mobile supervised consumption services are an option for the community should an application application come for a federal exemption.

“At this point now, City Administration will prepare potential bylaw amendments to make provisions, and those will come back on the open agenda in the coming months,” said Mayor Tara Veer.

Veer added that although there is currently no application before the City, the City has a responsibility to prepare in the likely event that the application will be forthcoming.

“Of course last month we dealt with supervised consumption in a definition and possible locations through the land use bylaw but there is also an option for mobile units that is being explored.

“In order for mobile units to transpire, the City would need to prepare the bylaw amendments through the licensing bylaw.”

After a lengthy public hearing in December, it was decided that Turning Point, Safe Harbour and various health clinics would not be the location for supervised consumption services, which left the Red Deer Regional Hospital on the radar as the only option.

The City is now exploring the option for a mobile service, which is what will be established when the licensing bylaw comes forward.

“It’s important to note that no application for supervised consumption services has yet been received by the City, nor, it is our understanding, has a federal exemption been applied for.”