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Addictions Study: Lethbridge City Council postpones proposal

City Councillor Jeff Coffman is asking for a study to be funded to find out why Lethbridge has so many people suffering with substance addictions.

Coffman brought the issue forward to City Council on Tuesday (Sept. 4) as an official business resolution.

He says the intent is to find the root causes. “Two weeks ago (during the SCS debate), we had a rather wholesome conversation about addictions and it really does raise the question of what makes us different? Why do we have such a large population within our community who are suffering from substance addictions?”

Councillors voted to postpone the issue for two weeks, till Council September 16th regular meeting, so the City Manager could look into whether or not this type of study is already being done.

Coffman says the aim is to find out some information so that Council can further target the provincial and federal governments, “the two orders of government that are 100% responsible for this, but nobody is doing the work,” says Coffman

It was suggested that no more than $74,500 be set aside for such a study. Some members of Council however, questioned why the city should be paying for such research when healthcare is a provincial jurisdiction.

Patrick Siedlecki
Patrick Siedlecki
Pat has been a mainstay in the CJOC News department from the time the station launched in 2007. He's been in the position of News Director since then and has been anchoring daily news casts as well as reporting and working behind the scenes. Community is important to him and keeping CJOC listeners and readers informed about what's happening across southern Alberta and beyond. Pat has been in radio broadcasting for the past 24 years, starting in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island in 1997 and then moving up island to Nanaimo for another few years before heading to Lethbridge in 2007. Pat grew up in the small Saskatchewan farming town of Foam Lake. After high school, he went to Western Academy Broadcasting College (WABC) in Saskatoon prior to moving to the island. Pat also spent several years broadcasting hockey in the BCHL as well as seven years as the radio voice of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL. Pat has been working at Cornerstone Funeral Home in Lethbridge as a Certified Life Celebrant and Funeral Assistant since 2016. News and sports have always been Pat's passion from the time he was a teenager and he's always been grateful to have had the opportunity to make that part of what's been a fun and long radio career!
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