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Still no location for overdose prevention site

Island Health says negotiations ongoing
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Island Health has still not decided on a site for an overdose prevention site in the Cowichan Valley. (File photo)

Island Health has still not decided where to set up its temporary overdose prevention site in the Cowichan Valley.

Spokeswoman Meribeth Burton said Island Health is continuing to work with its partners and stakeholders in the region during the approval stage of the overdose prevention site.

“Nothing has been approved at this point,” she said.

“We’ll keep the community fully informed of our progress.”

Island Health said in May that it intended to have the site in place by this summer.

Municipalities in the Valley have no regulatory jurisdiction on the issue because it’s a part of provincial health emergency legislation and Health Authorities across the province have the ability to set up overdose prevention sites anywhere they choose.

But Island Health is working to find a site in the Valley that will be acceptable to the municipality in which it will reside, and to the public, as much as possible

Officials said in early July that while specific sites have been eyed in the Valley, with most in the Duncan area, nothing has yet been set in stone.