Calgary, like every other major city is in the grip of an opioid addiction crisis. The city's downtown has become an almost dystopian scene as open drug consumption has become a common sight, along with emergency services vehicles travelling from one overdose to another. .Urban city parks have become particularly bad, as addicts have made themselves at home within them and taken over the public washrooms. It is hard to convince tourists and families to visit the city's downtown when there are no clean or safe washroom facilities to be found. .Calgary responded to the problem by giving a contract to a local addiction enablement group to maintain the washrooms in two of the city's most troublesome parks. The Alberta Alliance Who Educate and Advocate Responsibly (AAWEAR) was granted $600,000 to maintain those two washrooms for a period of six months. The group used every woke keyword from "inclusive" to "equitable" as they vowed to employ the unemployable at a living wage for this task. Pairs of attendants would be posted outside each of the two city park washrooms during daylight hours, to ensure they were clean and safe to use. .One of those washrooms is right along the route I walk when heading to the Western Standard offices downtown so I had an opportunity to observe the progress of this program on a regular basis. .They took on the task with gusto initially. A large blue tent was set up, and former street people were employed to sit in it. The tent had snacks, water bottles, naloxone, and advice for visitors on how drugs could be safely consumed. The group is doubtless well-meaning but a short visit to their website exposes their ideological fixation on providing a "safe" supply of drugs. There is no such thing as a "safe supply" of methamphetamines or safe way to consume fentanyl outside of a hospital environment. .I spent a couple lunch hours sitting nearby and watching the activity. While the tent quickly turned into a social hub for the local addicts, I rarely saw the attendants actually going into the washrooms to ensure they were clean..They likely did prevent some abuse of the facilities just by being present though. .One afternoon, I walked by the washroom and found the attendants had abandoned their post and left their tent behind. An addict was passed out in the tent and can be seen in the picture from this article. .I posted the picture on Twitter ("X") and asked what had happened? .City Councilor Dan McLean picked up on it and made inquiries. McLean heard everything from there having been a training meeting for the staff to a general staff meeting. .It was never explained how they forgot a 10x10 foot tent when packing up and leaving. .A person from the AAWEAR began angrily engaging me on Twitter ("X") for my exposing their folly. She then said the issue wasn't funny at all as the tent had been stolen. .Yes, the idealists of the group realized what happens when you leave anything of value unguarded in downtown Calgary. .The attendants returned with a new table and a patio umbrella. They got a new tent for awhile but it disappeared as well and they just stuck to using the umbrella. Perhaps they got tired of setting it up and taking it down daily. .Week by week, their little attendant's setup got smaller. Soon there were no snacks or items to be seen. They had some water bottles and literature, but not the load of products they began the venture with. .Eventually, it was just a folding table with a couple people sitting at it and it became a popular spot for addicts to hang around. The welcoming environment they were supposed to create for the public was anything but. Most people find strung-out addicts openly consuming drugs to be intimidating and tend to avoid them whenever possible. Unless a person was truly in desperate need, they were not going to run that gauntlet of troubled souls to use the washroom. .Then, almost a month before the program was to end, the attendants disappeared. I spoke to a local worker and was told they had burned through their funds and the city wouldn't give them more so they gave up. This group was being paid $100,000 per month to have people sit outside two washrooms and they still couldn't stay on budget. .The intention was never to provide safe, clean washrooms for the public. This fiasco was about an ideologically driven city hall funneling funds to an addiction enablement group. They knew taxpayers were tired of subsidizing and enabling open drug consumption so they wrapped this initiative up as a supposed washroom maintenance contract. .The group employed the "unemployable" for what they considered a "living wage". There was a reason these folks weren't employable and there is a reason not every job merits a "living wage". Those facts surely contributed to the sudden ending of the program though it's doubtful the fuzzy headed idealists running it realize this. .What we need to do though is make sure Calgary's city administration has learned from this mess. Some folks may dismiss $600,000 as a drop in the bucket as far as city budgets go. Those dollars could have truly changed lives for the better and they were squandered. As the mayor and city council are trying to find new ways to tax citizens, they never speak of cutting spending. When they can piss $600,000 into a program like this without thinking twice, I think it's safe to assume there is plenty of room for spending cuts. .How many more sole-sourced contracts have been going out to advocacy groups from the city of Calgary? .I suspect there are many. It's just that most of these little pet projects don't happen to have columnists walking past them every couple days and tracking their progress (or lack of it). .Times are tough. Many people are struggling to fill the fridge and pay the rent. Meanwhile, the city of Calgary is wasting untold dollars in side projects that most people haven't even heard of. .Before Calgary's city hall even thinks of hiking taxes again, it needs to get its spending under control. Programs such as the AAWEAR washroom attendant fiasco are a slap in the face to hard working Calgarians who are trying to keep up with their bills.
