A local business owner in the downtown area wants the proposed Consumption and Treatment Services site moved to a different location.
On Thursday, current ward 3 councillor, Renaldo Agostino, announced his plans to table a notice of motion during Windsor's city council meeting, to rescind its support of the proposed site at 101 Wyandotte Street East.
Many councillors have spoken up regarding the motion, including Ward 2 councillor, Fabio Costante, ward 9 councillor, Kieran McKenzie, and ward 10 councillor, Jim Morrison, who held a press conference on Friday afternoon saying they are opposed to a change in the proposed location, and that changing the location would become a lengthy process.
However, Antoine Greige, owner of Antoine Greige Salon Inc., located at 670 Goyeau Street, says he wants the location to be moved, and has wanted it moved prior to council's approval last year.
The proposed site is where the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel entrance is.
Greige says it would be the last thing visitors see at the tunnel.
"The location is very bad," says Greige. "I'm not against helping people with a safe injection site, but, the location is very bad. First of all, for our businesses and second of all, they have it right as you say bye to Canada and you have that as the last thing that visitors will see."
He says he's lost customers who have told him they won't come back because they're nervous and scared.
"They've already told me, 'I'm not coming back', or they're not coming back because they're scared and they're nervous," he says. "The way they see it is things could happen, and they don't want to take chances. And people will make sure not to support the downtown, and here we are trying to revive downtown and trying to make it better, and welcoming, and then we're doing stuff like that to have right at the heart of downtown."
Antoine Greige (Photo courtesy: Antoine Greige's Twitter account/@AntoineGreige)
Greige adds he wants the city to help those who need the site, but he doesn't want it in the proposed location.
"I hope that council will make the right decision, and try to move it somewhere else instead of the location they chose," says Greige. "It would be better for all of us, for the downtown people, for the city, for the image of the City of Windsor. And let's help these people, but find somewhere else."
The CTS site is expected to open at the proposed location in March.
Windsor city council meets at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon.