'Extremely concerning': Two northern Ont. safe consumption sites fear closure

Anxiety is mounting over the future of two supervised consumption sites in northern Ontario as funding for them is set to run out at the end of the year.

The northern cities of Sudbury and Timmins -- where opioid overdose rates are well above the provincial average -- have been paying for the sites in their communities for several months but say long-term support isn't sustainable, which is why they've appealed to the province for permanent funding.

Both communities are so far waiting on the Ontario government to respond.

"It's extremely concerning and I don't know what we're going to do," Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau said during a recent phone interview.

"This is a medical crisis and these sites should be funded by the Ministry of Health."

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Boileau said she's worried that opioid overdose deaths will spike if the Timmins site -- which opened in July 2022 -- is forced to shut down in January.

"Before the site opened, it was getting to the point where weekly, and some weeks it was daily, Timmins was hearing about overdoses," she said.

"For a municipality of 42,000, that means your neighbours, your loved ones, people you went to school with, your colleagues, were all being impacted by this."

The site reversed about 130 overdoses in the first year it was open, the mayor said, calling it a great success.

"Provincial officials don't want to see safe consumption states as being the be-all and end-all solution for municipalities and I would just say that's not at all how we look at it," she said.

"If we received the permanent funding for this site, it would just give us that opportunity to start focusing our attention elsewhere, such as building affordable housing, because we would know that the site is preventing deaths."

Data from Ontario's coroner's office shows that from April 2022 to March 2023, the public health unit for Timmins and its surrounding areas had a fatal opioid overdose rate of 41 per 100,000 in population, the fourth highest in the province.

In the Sudbury public health unit, the rate was approximately 50 per 100, 000 population -- the third highest in the province after the Thunder Bay and Algoma public health units, also in northern Ontario.

The provincial rate for that time period was 17 per 100,000 population.

In Sudbury, a safe consumption site funded by the municipality and run by the harm-reduction agency Reseau ACCESS Network, opened eight months ago but applied for permanent provincial funding last year.

Site manager Amber Fritz said those who work at the site are growing increasingly worried about its future.

"It makes me really angry because I see what this place has done for folks," she said, while standing at the site known locally as "The Spot."

"People are still walking this earth because they chose to walk through our door and they were supported by this amazing team."

Funding from the City of Greater Sudbury is set to expire on Dec. 31, she said, and the province has not provided a timeline on when it might make a decision.

Health Canada provides exemptions under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to allow the consumption of drugs at supervised consumption sites, but provinces and territories are ultimately in control of establishing permanent sites.

The sites in Timmins and Sudbury have exemptions from Health Canada, which has allowed them to operate on a temporary basis. Both have applied to the province for permanent status -- and funding -- but Ontario has not issued a decision.

Ontario's Ministry of Health said it "is in receipt of an application for a consumption and treatment site in Sudbury."

"All applications are subject to a rigorous screening process and timelines for the application screening process vary," spokesperson W.D. Lighthall wrote in a statement.

The province did not respond to inquiries about the site in Timmins or provide further details on how far along the review process for both applications was.

Steve Jacques, general manager of community development for Greater Sudbury, said cities don't have the resources to tackle the opioid crisis themselves.

"Municipalities are doing what they can with what they have but we're not an endless supply of money," he said.

"This is a clinical type service that's beyond the capacity of municipalities. It falls into the realm of the public health and it falls into the realm of Ontario health."

Health-care workers and other experts have said there are several factors in northern Ontario that may help explain why its population is more vulnerable to the risks posed by opioids, including the fact that it has fewer social services and a higher percentage of Indigenous residents who may have trauma related to colonialism that's been known to lead to increased substance use.

Angele Desormeau, director of addictions and housing at Canadian Mental Health Association Cochrane-Timiskaming in Timmins, said workers at the city's supervised consumption site fear that closure will trigger a spate of overdoses and deaths.

"The government will have to respond to that, definitely, but why are we taking it to that point?" she asked.

"It costs less to have people go to a safe consumption site than to have them have to access EMS or potentially maybe not survive."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.