Editor's note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
The operators of a drug consumption and treatment site in Sudbury are pleading with the province for funding to stay open, saying their services "save lives" and are at risk of shutting down after February.
"We do not have provincial funding. We've been waiting for over two years; our site is set to close. Timmins is in the same boat; they're set to close at the end of March if they don't receive funding," Amber Fritz, manager of supervised consumption services with Réseau ACCESS Network, told the standing committee on finance and economic affairs on Tuesday.
Fritz said if this happens, there would be no supervised consumption site (SCS) between Toronto and Thunder Bay.
Here in Barrie, meanwhile, public health officials have also been trying to get approvals in place for an SCS near the city's downtown. Back in October, local officials with the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) said they've received no updates on a Barrie plan, despite multiple attempts, while rent continues to be paid at the Innisfil Street location.
The Barrie proposal was endorsed by the previous city council in June 2021 and also has federal approval to operate. What it lacks is provincial approval. It is provincial government dollars which must fund operating costs for Barrie’s SCS facility, pay for its staff, equipment and maintenance.
Fritz says SCS facilities "save lives, reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, refrain people from going into the emergency department when an overdose occurs, refrain (people) from calling EMS when an overdose occurs."
"We know that Sudbury in particular and Thunder Bay and Timmins and Algoma are disproportionately affected by the drug-poisoning crisis — we need these services desperately," she said.
She said Réseau ACCESS Network, a non-profit, had submitted an application for funding to the province in August 2021 and is still waiting. The SCS in Sudbury, known as The Spot, has been operating since September 2022. Funding it was receiving from the city expired at the end of last year, with Fritz saying they've been running on a donation from Vale Base Metals in January and have received anonymous donations to keep the site afloat in February.
The Ford government launched a review of supervised consumption sites following a shooting outside of a site in Toronto's Leslieville neighbourhood last summer, with Minister Michael Tibollo, the associate minister of mental health and addictions, saying in the fall that this would include the development of new safety protocols.
The review means pending and new applications for supervised consumption sites in the province will have to wait. Tibollo told SooToday earlier this month that the review is expected to be done within the next two months.
"We understand that there's a review taking place, but people are dying today," Fritz told the committee. "We need our site open. We need our site funded."
She said the uncertainty is causing "a lot of fear" among those who use their services. Her concern over a temporary closure is that it risks the progress they've made.
"If we do end up shutting down, even if we reopen, that damages trust that we have worked very hard to build with people that don't often trust the health system, because they're not treated very well," Fritz said. "If you're someone who uses drugs, especially a racialized person who uses drugs, you're not really getting the best level of care that you should be receiving, and this is something that we hear over and over and over."
Réseau ACCESS Network has launched a campaign called #SaveTheSpot. Executive director Heidi Eisenhauer posted an open letter on Jan. 16 asking people to "consider donating temporary bridge funding" to keep the site operating.
"Your donation will directly impact the lives of community members by providing services to people whose behaviours are often stigmatized, help reduce public consumption, save lives by enabling the medical team to reverse overdoses, and enable emergency services to reallocate funds to other types of emergencies," Eisenhauer wrote.
Fritz told the committee that their site has been getting busier each month. In 29 days this month, they supported 376 consumptions and 302 visits, she said, adding that they're hoping to move to a downtown location and reach even more people.
"Supervised consumption sites can be a little controversial for some folks, I personally don't think so, we know that they save lives," she said, noting they've treated more than 24 overdoses on site.
Fritz said such sites also help connect people to other services.
"When people feel safe and comfortable and not judged, they're a lot more likely to open up to you and say, hey, I need help," she said. "When we don't have these services, people that are stigmatized and left out of traditional services, they don't get the help that they need, and that's when we see mental health issues explode onto our streets."
Fritz called the supervised consumption site "a place of dignity."
"It is a place where people do not have to consume drugs behind dumpsters and in alleyways in the freezing cold," she said. "We know that people are going to use drugs regardless; people always have, and people always will, so why not support people to have the dignity that they deserve?"
She said the ask from the province was for around $1.3 million per year, but that right now they're running month-to-month on donations totalling around $75,000 — but that's not at full capacity since full-time staff have resigned due to the uncertainty of the site's future.
NDP health critic France Gélinas said this is a "very small investment."
"For $1.3 million, we will save dozens of lives in my community," the Nickel Belt MPP said, going on to share a personal story. "You were there when my nephew died of a drug overdose here in Sudbury. His mom is a nurse. He's was a good kid who could not gain access to the programs and services to help him and he's not with us anymore, and that happens to many families."
Supervised consumption sites need to apply and get approval from the federal government in the form of an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. According to a federal website, the Sudbury site's exemption is valid until May 30, 2025.
Asked about the Sudbury site and its concerns, Hannah Jensen, spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said “Following the tragic incident in July at the Riverdale CTS site, the ministry launched a review of all CTS sites and a third-party review led by Unity Health of the Riverdale site."
She said the reviews are "ongoing and will inform the next steps taken by the Ministry of Health. All applications for new CTS sites currently with the Ministry are on pause.”
Jensen went on to highlight the government's "Roadmap to Wellness" plan, saying the province has invested $525 million since 2019 in different addiction treatment services and supports, such as new youth wellness hubs, including in Sudbury, "that provide integrated primary care and mental health and addiction services to Ontarians ages 12 to 25," rapid access addiction medicine clinics, and "safe bed" for people in crisis who are brought to hospitals.
She said the government is also providing a one-time investment of $90 million over three years to "boost capacity in addictions services, adding 500 new addiction treatment beds" as a response to the pandemic.
