New Suitors Line Up For Detox Centre

New Suitors Line Up For Detox Centre

Friday, August 18, 2006 at 14:13

 

 

The Prince Albert Grand Council says five communities have come forward expressing interest in becoming the new host site of a long-awaited youth detox centre.

 

The Rural Municipality of Buckland is out of the picture as a proposed location, but PAGC CEO Darrell Haysom says there is no shortage of new places where the facility could be established.

 

Haysom says there have been expressions of interest from Prince Albert, Birch Hills and Nipawin. Two other communities wish to remain anonymous for the time being.

 

Haysom has been critical of Buckland, which has been the proposed location for the facility for the last 10 to 12 months.

 

Two RM councillors approached the PAGC about building the facility there, but a district planning committee recently rejected the proposal over a zoning bylaw violation.

 

Haysom says the real issue is many Buckland residents don’t want the 15-bed youth treatment facility in their area.

 

Haysom notes the centre would have generated a lot of economic spinoffs for Buckland by employeeing 32 people with a combined annual payroll of $1.7 million.

 

He says if the detox centre had been accepted in Buckland, it would have opened next June. He says putting it in a new community will push back the opening by two or three months.

 

The PAGC chiefs are expected to approve the new course of direction at a meeting today.