A special Red Deer city council meeting convened in order to determine locations for possible supervised consumption services, in the event they are mandated by the province, will continue Wednesday at 9 a.m.

On Tuesday night, council got as far as removing the Bremner, Johnstone and 49th Street health clinics as potential locations, leaving Turning Point, Safe Harbour and the hospital for today’s debate.

Council then voted to take a recess, proposed by councillors Vesna Higham and Buck Buchanan. Mayor Tara Veer and councillors Michael Dawe and Frank Wong opposed the motion.

After a public hearing that lasted nearly three hours and closed at 9:41 p.m., followed by a slew of procedural questions that pushed further into the night, councillors in favour of the recess said they wanted rest before making what Higham called “one of the most significant” decisions.

Legislators are only to consider submissions made by the Dec. 15 feedback deadline and those made at the public hearing itself. They were instructed not to take any more of them via different forms of communication, and to avoid discussion and debate on the matter during the recess.

The only decision on Tuesday night was an amendment proposed by Coun. Lawrence Lee to remove the three health clinics from the land use bylaw amendment that would add SCS as a discretionary use. Lee said it was clear that community resistance to those locations was highest of all the sites.

Thirty people spoke during the public hearing. They were asked to keep their comments focused on what lays within the city’s jurisdiction -- location, though that did not stop many from weighing in on the merits of SCS.

Turning Point, located downtown, is the only site to express interest in providing SCS. A survey of more than 250 drug users found it to be the preferred location.

Christine Harris is a downtown homeowner that supports Turning Point as such, citing the agency’s relationships with those who would use SCS.

“Out of anybody in Red Deer, I would trust them the most because they have worked with these people,” Harris said. “You can’t just have a health authority doing it.”

For Cassandra Fink, a 38-year-old recovering addict, those relationships were a “lifeline.”

“Building a relationship over time with nurses and doctors and social workers, that’s going to be a lifeline to an addict and help them recover,” said Fink, who added that relapse is bound to happen as part of the recovery process.

Others like Jason Stephan, a tax lawyer, were concerned with businesses leaving downtown.

A few business owners told council they have already experienced crime, harassment and littering of drug paraphernalia.

Stephan said if SCS is approved downtown, it would undo millions of dollars spent on revitalization.

Robin Bobocel, CEO of the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce, said while his organization does not take a position on where SCS should be located, they accept the merits of such a facility.

Bobocel said businesses want council to be mindful of the impacts SCS could have. By locating it near depressed areas, he said there’s a risk of creating a ghetto, making investment unlikely and could contribute to flight of businesses from downtown or the city itself.

Stephan proposed the hospital would be the appropriate spot. The province is mandating SCS and should have care and control over it on its own land, he said.

The city’s planning manager Emily Damberger told council that Alberta Health Services does not intend to apply for SCS at any of its locations, whether it be the hospital or the clinics.

Safe Harbour’s executive director Kath Hoffman also ruled her agency out as a location, saying they do not have the capacity to provide the services.