City releases lease details for Blood Tribe shelter takeover
By Lethbridge Herald on January 24, 2023.
Herald photo by Ry Clarke
The Lethbridge Shelter and Resource Centre had its terms of leasing agreement up for discussion during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
The City of Lethbridge and Blood Tribe Department of Health have agreed upon a lease agreement for a shelter operating at the location of the former Lethbridge Shelter and Stabilization Centre on 2 Ave. N.
Details of the agreement were provided to city council on Tuesday in the consent agenda in one of several reports from administration.
The lease agreement information was contained in a report by City Manager Lloyd Brierley. The lease agreement was made on Jan. 1.
A resolution was made at a special council meeting on Dec. 23 to keep the lease information confidential until Tuesday under Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act Sections 16, 21, 23, 24 and 29.
Section 16 refers to Harmful to Business Interests of a Third Party, 21 is Harmful to Intergovernmental Relations, 23 refers to Local Public Body Confidences, 24 is Advice from Officials and 29 is information that is or will be available to the public.
Under the agreement the new tenant will pay annual rent of $99,975 for each year of the term and any renewal terms to be paid in two instalments. The first instalment will be $24,993.75 payable at the same time as the term rent of $25 which will be paid on or before the commencement date of the shelter’s operation.
The second instalment of $74,981.25 will be due on or before June 30 of the term and any renewal terms.
The agreement states that any additional rent will be held in reserve by the City and will be used for mutually agreed upon maintenance and replacement projects in relation to what are called in the agreement “demised premises.”
The agreement further states that by Feb. 28 of each year the parties will endeavour to agree on maintenance and replacement projects that the additional rent will be used for that year with all projects to be completed by Oct. 31 unless otherwise mutually agreed upon.
The parties may agree mutually to renew the agreement for as many as four one-year terms. Both parties can terminate the lease without cause upon 30 days notice. Furthermore, the tenant will “peaceably surrender and give up to the City vacant possession of the demised premises in substantially the same condition and state of repair as at the commencement date” if upon expiration or early termination of the lease.
The City can immediately terminate the agreement if the tenant is no longer operating the shelter or is no longer receiving provincial funds for its operation.
Terms of the agreement call for the building to be operated “as a homeless shelter, wellness/recovery centre and…stabilization centre.” Only uses permitted in the agreement will be allowed at the facility. Prior written consent has to be obtained if the tenant wants to modify, change or alter permitted uses, says the agreement.
The agreement also states the tenant mustn’t do or permit to have done anything at the premises which will result in the creation of a nuisance. Sub-leasing of any part of the facility is not allowed.
The tenant is also required to pay the costs of required security measures and must provide to the City a copy of a fire safety plan, security management plan and first responder access plan as well as updated copies of those plans if and when they are amended.
The new tenant is responsible for paying all utility costs and for furnishings and equipment to be used as well as their repair, replacement or upgrades.
The new tenant is responsible to ensure financial controls are in place relating to operation of the shelter.
The shelter operator must also comply with all good neighbour agreements entered into by it and provide the City with copies of any executed agreements. A breach by the tenant of any terms in good neighbour agreements will be considered to be a breach of the lease and development permit 02-1104 issued by the City for the use of the building as a homeless shelter.
Failure to comply with those two matters will be considered a breach of the lease and the City may exercise any remedies available in the event of default by the tenant.
20-19
I really hope that this works and we can put an end to the carnage on our streets and take back our City.
Sadly, as we just saw in a news report yesterday, the NDP and Moms Stop the Harm are already pushing for another Supervised Consumption Site in this city, and if that happens, all the work that has been done will fail.
The report was full of misinformation, a trick used by the old SCS to mislead the public, for their own gains. It didn’t state which universities performed the survey of 50 addicts in this city only that it was from Western universities, what credentials they had to perform such a study, who asked them to come to this city ( I am guessing it was NDP and Moms Stop the Harm or as I call them since they create more addicts Moms ‘Support’ the Harm ), or when and where they performed the study.
The exisinting mobile unit is hardly used and the new shelter operated by the Blackfoot Confederacy has support services and access to counselling the same as the old SCS, so the people were either out of touch or sowing disinformation.
They used the proven false stats giving Lethbridge the reputation of having the busiest SCS in the world, which was proven to be incorrect when AHS took over the operation and suddenly Stacey Bourgue admitted that there were only about 143 addicts using the facility multiple times per day.
We did not have the busiest consumption site in the world! More misleading but groups that only are looking for their own gains . Non profits that want to expand their organizations, when they are not wanted or needed.
The stats on fatal overdoses, they stated increases, failing to state that fatal overdoses across North America increased within the last 3 years due to the pandemic: Isolation, more home labs cooking the drugs locally instead of shipped in internationally, Lethbridge stats now have the surrounding communities now added to the stats ( one news report referred Lethbridge and now being the metropolis of Lethbrdge ), and more importantly, they have added overdoses from all drugs and even alcohol . . . and yes, people are still dying from alcohol.
The NDP already states they believe SCS work, proven by science! They failed to see how the biggest scientific failure is right next door in BC, where they started the first safe injection site 20 years ago, and all it did was increase the issues, every year.
Manitoba has no SCS and it’s fatally overdoses are 1/3 of Alberta’s with their 7 SCS sites and Saskatchewan has one site and their fatal overdoses are 1/3 of Alberta’s.
And don’t tell me they are not dealing with the drug issues there. Anyone who has bee to Regina, Saskatoon or Winnipeg sees that they have drug issues there.
I wish this new shelter great success so we can end the death and destruction in our city!
No one ever looks at Sask or Man to see why there OD deaths are so low, with only 1 safe drug consumption site in Sask and none in Man.
After looking at AB/BC and SK/MB, we can see what works and what doesn’t. It appears that the expression “if you build it, they will come” is accurate.
All of the effort and money put into resolving the issues will be wasted if the NDP opens another location here.
The blood tribe managed the shelter before. Why were they removed then?