Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson says if an unlicensed pop-up supervised injection site is going to operate, it should be doing so elsewhere.
Watson says discussions are underway to have it move outside the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre.
"We think that on an interim basis, the pop-up centre can and should be located next to the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, because they have the licence from the federal government," Watson said Tuesday. "I don’t think it’s fair to the neighbours and to the kids who are going to the community centre and using the park to have their park taken over."
The injection site went up in Raphael Brunet Park on St. Patrick last Friday.
The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre is set to have a federally-approved site ready this fall.
Watson did not say whether city officials would move to shut the unlicensed Overdose Prevention Ottawa site down if an agreement can't be reached.
"We’re going to work for an amicable solution. That’s the first priority. But the reality is that I think it does not do a lot of good to the movement when you have a group that has a legitimate right to a federal licence, and then a group that just comes up and says we’re going to operate a pop-up site. I think you should go to the site that has the federal authority to help these people in our community."