by TRACEY LINDEMAN

Montreal needle exchange facility Cactus had $1-million in federal funding with their name on it, and all they had to do was present a relocation and acquisition plan by March.

The community aid organization and the downtown borough of Ville-Marie agreed that the concrete park at Sanguinet and Ste-Catherine E. constituted the ideal site. Last June, a public consultation called by Cactus discussing the move saw little opposition. Then the bomb was dropped.

The needle exchange had to look elsewhere, borough councillor Robert Laramée informed them, citing a number of concerned residents and business owners who had contacted him after the meeting, voicing their opposition to the project.

Cactus intervention worker Darlène Palmer finds this hard to believe. "I think [Laramée and borough mayor Martin Lemay] are playing a much more active role in stimulating people's disapproval of us than generally was present," she says. Statements made by the elected officials linked Cactus with safe injection sites, she adds, something Cactus has no intention of establishing in the foreseeable future. Palmer feels things are being taken out of context, and says the politicians are fostering an environment of general misinformation and confusion that has had a detrimental effect on Cactus's endeavours.

With mould on the walls and fumes emanating from the neighbouring Voyageur bus station, their present location in a cramped basement on St-Hubert is no longer adequate. But if Cactus doesn't make a project proposal this month, they risk losing the $1.1-million subsidy.

"We need room to grow," says Palmer. "I don't think that because we're a needle exchange that we need, inevitably, to be ghettoized. I think we're entitled to have clean and healthy workspaces."

However, Laramée would rather they just stay put, says Ville-Marie press attaché Isabelle Bédard. As Cactus already has a rapport with its neighbours, the city councillor asked them to consider expanding their current space instead of relocating.

But with 29 low-rent housing units above them, they would need to evict individuals already in precarious financial situations in order to expand. On top of that, a municipal bylaw that restricts the location, relocation and expansion of community aid organizations designed for marginalized groups like drug users was pushed through council last December.

In a press release dated Dec. 13, three days before the council meeting that passed the bylaw, Laramée was quoted as saying that he was in favour of Cactus's expansion, but that their attitude led him to believe they refused to follow the necessary steps to obtain the public, and council's, approval.

"We're not sure what to do," she says. "We fought the war fair and square. I think that's the part that is making me most angry - we fought it fair."

While the coveted corner of Sanguinet and Ste-Catherine is off-limits to Cactus, l'Université de Québec à Montréal has reportedly expressed interest. "UQÀM spoke up [at the public consultation] and said they had first claim on this territory," says Palmer. "It was interesting, because the residents said they didn't want more UQÀM there."

Cactus is trying to work out an extension for the federal grant, and Palmer and her co-workers are still battling it out. "I'm angry that 15 years after our opening, we still have to be fighting like this," she says.