Aldershot Clinic

Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ShUScLrdTk

Fear of the unknown creates an atmosphere of anger and distrust in the City of Burlington, politicians, a planning process that doesn’t listen to residents and in the clinic itself. We can all understand community concerns about a clinic, referred to by some as a methadone clinic, would operate close to an elementary school in their neighbourhood when they feared illegal drug users where going to be hanging out waiting for a fix close to an elementary school.


The many stumbles around this issue create concerns and City Council will have to address these issues to avoid misunderstaandings in the future. The first mistake was misinformation, contained in a letter to the community, labelling the clinic as a Methadone Clinic, prior to informing themselves about the medical information and the planning process.

The next misstep was the school trustee who quickly called a public meeting (the fact 2010 is an election year wouldn’t have anything to do with it? – more about the politics later) because her constituents wanted to talk about a strategy to rid the neighbourhood of the Methadone Clinic. Collecting relevant information is the job of all politicians before making a decision. The school board trustee didn’t obtain vital information to help her with advice to her constituents or facilitate her public meeting.


The Ward Councillor made his mistake by trusting the planning process and not understanding the fear of residents. The Mayor dropped the ball by trying to interject into the discussion without consultation with the Ward Councillor which has been an issue with other members of council in the past. A public meeting was arranged by the Ward Councillor and he invited the Wellbeing Clinic to inform the residents. An error was made by the clinic itself. They presented factual information but from my perspective, failed to communicate effectively with the audience. They needed to dispel the fears of the neighbourhood by being completely transparent but they chose not to tell both partners’ names when pressed by the audience. When asked how many methadone clients they would treat, the answer was, “We don’t know,” which further infuriated the crowd. A simple answer explaining those decisions about medication are determined by the physician and there is no way of knowing but similar clinics dispensing methadone to approximately 1% of their patience.

The waters muddied further by the Ward Councillor withdrawing site plan approval from the staff and giving the impression that residents had another opportunity to stop the clinic.
Any municipal politician should know full well that this is not the case. It gives the residents the opportunity to comment on landscaping and parking only not whether the location meets planning criteria. The Mayor and one other member of council voted against the approval for parking and landscaping only. Other members of council voted in favour of the parking and landscaping which wasn’t the issue the residents addressed. Why residents were speaking on unrelated issues is a question for the chairperson of the committee is beyond my comprehension when the site plan was not the issue.

The Director of Planning had it right when he said the clinic is an office use and can be situated almost anywhere in Burlington. No politician should give false hope to people that they can have the clinic moved from their neighbourhood when they know, or should know, better. If the designation is in the Official Plan of the city, which states the clinic is an office use, save your effort for something you can influence like a 2010 municipal election.