On October 18th the LCA wrote a letter concerning 47 York St., Ottawa, File Number 21801, Application Number 302223. You may find our letter here.

Our response to Mayor Watson's letter to us concerning the pop up injection site at Raphael Brunet Park. You may read our letter here.

We welcome everyone to our next monthly meeting to be held Monday October 16th at 7pm at the Routhier Community Centre, 172 Guigues av. There will be a presentation from the Lowertown Community Resources Centre on the Good Food Initiatives in Lowertown, an update from our city councillor, our community police officer and updates from all our committees. You can find the meeting Agenda here or below. Meeting minutes from the September 11 meeting are here. See you then!

Nous invitons tous les résidants de la Basse-Ville à assister à notre prochaine réunion mensuelle le lundi 16 octobre à 19h au Centre communautaire Routhier, 172 av Guigues. Il y aura une présentation du Centre de Ressources Communautaire de la Basse-Ville sur le Marché Mobile ainsi que des mises à jour du conseiller municipal, du représentant communautaire de la police ainsi que des mise à jour de tous nos comités. Vous trouverez l'ordre du jour ici et les notes de la réunion du 11 septembre ici. Venez-nombreux!

(Français ci-dessous)

Follow up on September 2017 monthly meeting
At our regular monthly community meeting on September 11th, the LCA invited Overdose Prevention Ottawa volunteer and LCA board member Catherine Hacksel to present some background information on the Pop-up site. The Ottawa Police Service and the Councillor were also present to answer questions.

Many comments and questions arose both before, during and after the meeting. Responses from the LCA follow.

When did the LCA board find out about the Pop-up site?

LCA board members, with the exception of Ms. Hacksel, found out about the site at the same time the rest of the community did– after August 25th.

What is the LCA's relationship to OPO and the Pop-up site?

The LCA has no relationship with OPO. A member of the LCA board, Catherine Hacksel, is a volunteer with OPO.  Ms. Hacksel was elected to the Board in June 2017, and is currently chair of the LCA's housing and homelessness committee. She has been an active member of the LCA attending regular meetings since 2015.

When you found out Ms. Hacksel was a member of OPO what did the board members do?

It became evident that the site at Raphael Brunet Park was going to be a contentious issue for the community. Rather than remove Ms. Hacksel from Pop-up site conversations, the LCA board relied on her professional expertise in drug related matters to clarify OPO's role and the current state of overdose risk and protection in Ottawa.

Why was Ms. Hacksel invited to present for OPO at the community meeting September 11th?

Ms. Hacksel was the most knowledgeable person to explain why the OPO site had been set up, what its objectives were and how it was operating.  

The LCA monthly meeting on September 11 provided an opportunity for residents to express their views to the city councilor, Ottawa police and LCA board members. Information was provided by an OPO volunteer on the “what and why” regarding the pop-up site. We believe this forum was a positive response to a community concern.

We use the knowledge and expertise of both active LCA members and external bodies to help us understand community issues. In this case, we have the expertise of a professional whose career is geared towards public health responses to addiction issues afflicting our community, who knows the frontline workers and networks, and who has a depth of knowledge to speak about the opioid crisis.

What is the LCA's official position vis-a-vis the Overdose Prevention Site?

The LCA met as a board for the first time after our summer recess on September 11th. It was decided to present the information available at the meeting and listen to the concerns of attendees.  The LCA's mandate is to provide safe space to discuss issues affecting our community. Individual board members do not claim to speak for the board as a whole nor for rest of the community. They are elected volunteers who act collectively as a bridge between the community and the city, or groups such as OPO. The board is actively discussing a broad range of supervised injection site issues in the context of the opioid crisis, health, social service, housing and security needs in our community. A position on this particular site has not been reached.

What has the board done regarding the perceived conflict of interest of one of its board members being a volunteer at the Overdose Prevention site?

LCA policy requires that a member with a conflict of interest recuse themselves from a vote. Should the LCA board vote on the Pop-up site, Ms. Hacksel will recuse herself from that vote.

I'm not happy with the way things were handled by the LCA, what else can I do?

As members of the community and volunteers, we share different points of view. If you want to have more of a say on how the LCA operates, work with a committee and attend regular meetings.  LCA elections are held at our AGM in June.

I’m not happy with the way our elected officials have handled their responsibility to provide health, social services and a safe and secure environment for all, what else can I do?
Contact them directly:
Councillor Fleury : [email protected]
Mayor Watson: [email protected]
MPP Natalie des Rosiers : [email protected]
MP Mona Fortier : [email protected]

Link to LCA survey results:
http://www.lowertown-basseville.ca/blog/non-authorised-overdose-prevention-site-survey-results-site-de-prevention-de-surdoses-non-autorise-resultats-de-sondage

Pop-up Overdose Prevention Site survey results
(Français ci-desous)

Background
Following its mandate to provide a forum to discuss community issues, the Lowertown Community Association (LCA) conducted a short survey in early September 2017 regarding the Pop-up Overdose Prevention Site at Raphael Brunet Park.  The survey was available from September 8 to 30, 2017.

How was the Overdose Prevention Site survey designed?
The survey was designed to collect views and comments regarding the Raphael Brunet Park Pop-up Overdose Prevention site and the two other injection site applications in Lowertown (Ottawa City Inner Health at the Shepherd's of Good hope and Ottawa Public Health at Clarence and Cumberland). The questions were reviewed by board members before its release. Some complaints were received after the survey was released and it was promptly adjusted.
The results indicate the responses of those who answered the survey. They do not claim to statistically represent the views of all Lowertown residents nor to be a definitive or scientifically accurate barometer of all sentiments on this issue.
The LCA invites anyone who has a complaint about the survey or its timeline to leave us their email ([email protected]) and we will be happy to focus group with you prior to creating a future survey.

Contexte
 
Poursuivant son mandat d’être un forum afin de discuter d’affaires communautaires, l’Association Communautaire de la Basse-Ville à créé un court sondage début septembre concernant le service pop-up de consommation de drogues supervisé, situé au Parc Raphael Brunet. Le sondage était ouvert du 8 au 30 septembre 2017.
 
Comment ce sondage a-t-il été conçu?
 
Le sondage a été conçu afin de rassembler des points de vues et commentaires concernant le service pop-up de consommation de drogues supervisé du parc Raphael Brunet ainsi que deux autres demandes de sites d’injections dans la Basse-Ville (Ottawa City Inner Health au site des Bergers de l’Espoir et celle de Santé Publique Ottawa à Clarence et Cumberland). Les question ont été revisé par les membres du CA de l’Association avant le lancement du sondage. Des plaintes on été émis suite à son lancement et le sondage à été ajusté dans les 24h suivantes.
 
Les résultats ne démontrent rien d’autres que les réponses des répondants au sondage. Le sondange et ses résultats ne réclament pas d’être un baromêtre d’opinion de tous les résidents de la Basse-Ville de façon statistiquement ou scientifiquement précise, ni pertinente. Prière donc d’en tirer des conclusions hâtifs.
 
The LCA invites anyone who has a complaint about the survey or its timeline to leave us their email ([email protected]) and we will be happy to focus group with you prior to creating a future survey.
 
L’Association de la Basse-Ville invite tous ceux qui ont des plaintes sur le sondage ou sa chronologie de nous envoyer un courriel ([email protected]). Il nous fera un grand plaisir d’effectuer un focus group avec vous avant d’émettre un autre sondage.


Survey Results / résultats du sondage

The Survey generated 343 answers in total. We parsed the information between:
Le sondage à généré 343 réponses au total. Nous avons divisé les réponses de façon suivante:


-Overall results / résultats globaux

https://www.surveymonkey.net/results/SM-5Q93D5T88/

password - mot de passe: lca2017
 
 
-Residents of Lowertown / résidents de la Basse-Ville (191 respondants - 191 répondants)

https://www.surveymonkey.net/results/SM-3Z3NJ9QL8/

password - mot de pase: lca2017

- Elsewhere in Ottawa / ailleurs à Ottawa (131 respondents - 131 répondants)

https://www.surveymonkey.net/results/SM-FSCZT9QL8/

password: lca2017

Outside of Ottawa /  à l'extérieur d'Ottawa (20 respondants - 20 répondants)

https://www.surveymonkey.net/results/SM-BHFSB9QL8/

password - mot de passe: lca2017

More comments or feedback? Write to us at [email protected]. Thank you.
D’autres commentaires? Écrivez nous a [email protected]. Merci.


Link to follow up on September 2017 monthly meeting.
Hyperlien au suivi de la réunion communautaire du mois de septembre 2017.

http://www.lowertown-basseville.ca/blog/follow-up-on-september-2017-monthly-meeting-suivi-de-la-rencontre-dassociation-du-mois-de-septembre-2017