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The Bruce Oake Recovery Center took another step to become a reality early Wednesday morning after a public marathon hearing at City Hall that lasted more than six hours.
More than 60 people were in the crowd at the Assiniboia Community Committee meeting. Generally, these meetings are held in a smaller room, but this has been moved to the council room to accommodate the crowd.
The committee has approved a rezoning and conditional use plan, but it will still have to go through the permanent property and development steering committee, the executive orientation committee and the city council before to be able to give the green light.
The Bruce Oake Recovery Center is expected to be a 50-bed long-term addiction treatment center at the former Vimy Arena site in the Crestview neighborhood.
READ MORE: Winnipeg family shares personal tragedy to fight the stigma of addiction treatment
While the vote was on the rezoning of the land, dozens of people for and against the center came to express their opinion on the project.
Many opponents live in the neighborhood. They say that increased traffic and security is a concern, property values will decline and they will lose green spaces and recreational spaces.
"I realize that rehabilitation facilities are important, but young people too," said Vicky Fedyk, who has lived on the Vimy road for 47 years.
"And hobbies keep them from getting caught up in the drug landscape."
Many former addicts and families of people who have lost family members have expressed support for the center, as well as nurses and residents in the area who feel that this is really necessary.
"We can help make Bruce's life meaningful and we can make sure it does not happen to anyone," said Bruce Oake, Bruce's father and chair of the center's board of directors.
Barb Ashley lost her son to addiction at the beginning of the year and said he went to a treatment center in Vancouver. But on his return to Winnipeg, the drug problems came back and he was put on a waiting list at the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, unable to get the help he needed.
"If there had been an installation [in Winnipeg]he could have access to post-treatment support and integrated into the community, "said Ashley.
Oake said that if the zoning was favorable to them, they would launch a fundraising campaign. He said that they had already raised a large sum and that people were "willing and willing to write" substantial checks.
Things were much quieter than at an information meeting this summer where supporters and opponents had lively discussions about the center.
READ MORE: Screaming matches and pbadionate calls dominate the Bruce Oake meeting
The proposed plan for the three-acre parcel would be divided into lots. The first lot, of an area of 2.45 acres, would be the object of a rezoning of a recreation park and recreation to a multi-family residential area.
The rest of the land would be used for green spaces.
If the rezoning process is approved, the province could buy the land from the city and lease the land for $ 1.43 million to the center for $ 1 a year.
Most of the arena would be demolished to build the recovery center, with the exception of a third of the surface of the western rink that would be used as a public gym where it was possible to reuse the site. Otherwise, a new gym would be built.
The facility would be the only long-term treatment facility in Winnipeg and would not cost anyone present. The center said that no detoxification would occur and that the residents had to be clean at the beginning of their trip. About 25 to 30 staff and support professionals would be on site all day.
WATCH: The information meeting on Bruce Oake gets angry
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