Mayor pitches new needles-for-cash exchange program
Mayor Greg Dionne will draft a letter to the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region asking it to fund a new needle exchange program in the city.
The mayor wants a new program that would offer people 10 cents for each needle they turn in, as well as training for a team of people who would pick up discarded needles. Dionne will be requesting $30,000 for this initiative.
“We give money back for glass, we give money back for tin cans, we [give] money back for everything else. We do have an issue with needles all over our community, so why in the spring, why don’t we come up with a program, train a team on how to get them and give a refund and get the needles that way?”
Part of the $30,000 would go towards training the people who would be picking up discarded needles on behalf of the city, but the remainder would go towards the needle exchange refunds.