Barrie city council, without discussion, approved a motion on April 9 to discontinue the needle collection kiosk pilot program except for a location at the H-Block near the downtown library.
"The kiosks consistently yield minimal needles within them, and operations staff continue to find needles in the parks and flower beds regularly," according to a staff report.
Though there has been a slight reduction in needles found on the ground, staff suspect this is the result of the County of Simcoe's program involving a contractor that completes walking routes and removes needles from sites within the downtown.
In November 2020, city council approved the implementation of needle exchange/collection bins within city parks or parking lots on a pilot basis (in addition to containers already located within the parks washrooms).
Eight locations were chosen for the pilot based on collaboration with Parks and Recreation to determine where staff had frequently encountered discarded needles or had received resident complaints regarding discarded needles.
The locations selected were:
- Heritage Park
- Queen's Park
- Collier Street Parking Garage (rear)
- 83 Perry Street (west entrance to Milligan's Pond)
- Sam Cancilla Park
- Kearsey Park
- Berczy Park
The cost to lease the kiosks and provide monthly collection was about $25,000.
The vendor was required to report the estimated number of needles collected from each kiosk during the pilot program.
Due to the unusual weights that were collected, vendors also provided monthly pictures of the products collected in each kiosk.
"The pictures showed the kiosks were often contaminated and contained significantly more garbage than used needles," the report stated.
In March 2022, city council adopted a motion that included direction for staff to investigate other needle kiosk designs to only allow needles to be added and a report back.
A modified version of the kiosks was approved with a change to the collection schedule to allow for every other month collection.
The cost of the revised approach was approximately $22,000 (not including costs to modify the bins, lease them and collect them every month) and was funded from the Community Benefit Reserve.
The bin near the downtown library is an older style model with a larger opening and the city assumed the collection responsibility.
Staff acknowledged in their report that discontinuing the needle collection bins could lead to greater discarding of needles elsewhere.
"In most cases, the existing bins have not demonstrated a significant improvement to health and safety of residents or the environment as the discarding of needles has not decreased significantly in the parks," the report concluded.
