One of the signature projects of the agreement between the Yukon Liberal Party and the Yukon NDP has hit a speed bump.

The Liberals are being propped up as a minority government by the NDP in the form of a Confidence and Supply Agreement, which was reached in late April and runs for two years.

The safe consumption site is one of the main points of that pact, and a prized project of the NDP. It had been set to open tomorrow in a renovated government building on Sixth Avenue near Cook Street.

Late Friday afternoon, a delay in the site’s opening was the subject of a brief news release from the government.

No new date has been set for the facility to open.

“The supervised consumption site is a life-saving health service that will provide a safe and hygienic environment for people to use drugs under the supervision of qualified medical staff,” the statement said.

“The facility was originally scheduled to open on August 31 but has been briefly postponed to account for renovations, staff training and to finalize details,” the news release stated.

“The supervised consumption site is an element of the Confidence and Supply Agreement and supported by both the Yukon Liberal government and the Yukon NDP caucus. Both parties have agreed to extend the deadline for opening the supervised consumption site,” the statement added.

“Our government is committed to combatting the opioid crisis and supporting all Yukoners through a harm reduction approach,” said Health and Social Services Minister Trac-Anne McPhee.

“We continue to work with our partners to complete the Whitehorse Supervised Consumption Site and open this facility as soon as possible.

“We have lost far too many Yukoners to drug overdoses, and research shows these facilities save lives.”

“We’ve lost too many people to overdoses, and this is one thing we can do to save lives,” added NDP MLA Emily Tredger.

“We’ve seen in other places that supervised consumption sites make communities safer. It’s the first step towards tackling the devastating opioid crisis that is happening in our territory.

“I’m looking forward to the opening of the Yukon’s first site in downtown Whitehorse.”

Tim Kucharuk, the press secretary for the Yukon Party, was less enthusiastic over the delay.

“This timeline was agreed to in the Liberal-NDP coalition agreement, and it appears that this is just another broken promise from this agreement by the Liberals,” Kucharuk said.

“We have seen many of the timelines and benchmarks in this agreement not lived up to so far as many of them were unrealistic and the Liberals were desperate to sell the farm in order to stay in power.

“It will be up to the NDP to start standing up for themselves and the commitments in their agreement, instead of letting the Liberals walk all over them,” Kucharuk added.

“Additionally, we are concerned that, as with many commitments in the Liberal-NDP coalition agreement, there has not been any meaningful consultation with affected residents and businesses.”

 Two information sessions on the Whitehorse supervised consumption site will be held in the Whitehorse United Church (basement) at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Since 2016, the Yukon has had 44 opioid-related deaths; 33 included fentanyl.

Opioid-related visits to the emergency department of the Whitehorse General Hospital made up 67 per cent of all overdose visits between 2016 and 2020.