BURSTWhile recognizing Kelowna City Council’s concerns with the Outreach Urban Health Centre safe consumption site, Interior Health’s (IH) chief medical health officer Dr. Sue Pollock said the site is ultimately saving lives.
On Tuesday, Sept. 1, Kelowna mayor Tom Dyas shared a letter to social media, calling for the supervised consumption site located at 1649 Pandosy Street to be denied renewal by the Federal Ministry of Health.
The purpose of the site is to provide safe monitoring and medical intervention by trained staff during substance use. This site, and others like it within IH, also offers harm reduction, health care and treatment referrals to clients.
In the letter, Dyas and council said the site has become a serious safely concern, stating that since the site opened in 2021, the RCMP has received 3,466 calls for service to the site or the immediate surrounding area, the Kelowna Fire Department has responded to 371 medical calls and 24 outdoor fire calls, and bylaw services responded to 420 incidents beyond routine daily interventions.
In a response on Wednesday, Sept. 2, Pollock said the IH recognizes Kelowna’s concerns regarding the safe consumption site and its impacts on the surrounding downtown community.
“Since the opening of Outreach Urban Health, we have shared the community’s goal of creating a safe and healthy environment for residents, businesses, visitors and people seeking care,” said Pollock. “We are committed to ongoing dialogue with the City and community partners, and discussions have been underway to respond to concerns and identify solutions that support both community well-being and access to essential health-care services.”
At the same time, Pollock said the toxic drug crisis remains a public health emergency. She stated that since the emergency was declared in 2016, a total of 887 people have lost their lives to toxic drugs in the Central Okanagan, including 46 deaths in the first half of this year.
So far this year, IH as a whole has seen a total of 132 deaths in its communities, with 70 in the Okanagan.
Pollock said that IH “has a responsibility to provide evidence-informed, life-saving services for people at greatest risk of overdose.”
In 2025 alone, Outreach Urban Health supported more than 37,000 visits and responded to 75 overdose events without a fatality, Pollock stated in an email to Black Press Media.
“These are lives that may otherwise have been lost to the toxic drug supply,” she added.
In its letter, Dyas and council said there’s a plethora of issues at the site.
“The city, RCMP and public safety partners continue to respond to serious and recurring incidents near the site, including gang activity, weapons-related assaults, intimate partner violence, drug trafficking, fencing of stolen property, arson, overdoses and other medical emergencies,” reads the letter.
At the same time, Pollock said that Outreach Urban Health, and other services like it are located in areas “where there is a demonstrated need for care.”
“People experiencing substance use, homelessness and other complex health and social challenges are already present in these areas,” said Pollock. “The role of the health centre is not to create these challenges, but to provide care, reduce harm, save lives and connect people to treatment and support services.”
At the end of the letter, Dyas concluded that the challenges that surround the downtown site “reinforce Kelowna’s ongoing request to the Province of B.C. for a regional mandatory care facility within the Okanagan that meets the scale of need for individuals experiencing severe addiction, mental health, and acquired brain injury challenges who cannot seek or sustain treatment independently.”
Pollock called the challenges in downtown Kelowna “complex” and require collaboration from health-care providers, local government, law enforcement, social service agencies, and the community.
“As discussions continue, Interior Health will support an evidence-informed approach that considers both community impacts and the significant public health benefits these services provide,” added Pollock. “Our priority remains preventing overdose deaths and connecting people to the care and support they need.”