Safe consumption site in Timmins getting ready to open

The building at 21 Cedar St. North is transforming into a safe consumption site for people who take drugs either by injection or mouth.

Meagan Baranyk, the city's community strategies coordinator, said this week that frontline workers are being informed about the site, called Safe Health Site Timmins.

“It would be a good place to possibly send some of their clients who use," said Baranyk. "We want people off the streets. We want the streets to be clean and we want to prevent deaths."

The site is a temporary fix and health care workers in the city say it's urgently needed. They said a tainted illegal drug supply is creating a situation where people are often dying alone.

“Between 2019 and 2020, our opioid-related deaths the number of deaths increased 82 per cent, which is a huge, drastic change," said Tina Brunet, a public health nurse with the Porcupine Health Unit.

"Of those deaths, which were about 40 in 2020, the majority happened in Timmins."

The Timmins and District Hospital is the site operator and said the location is easy to get to on foot or bus.

“It’s near to a lot of harm reduction services," said Patrick Nowak, manager of the addictions program at Timmins and District Hospital.

"It’s near to healthcare services, social services -- a lot of the services that we could wrap around that client in the event they’re ready to seek help. The building was pretty well known to people who use substances."

Safe Health Site Timmins will operate daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and there will be health professionals there to help people who may overdose. Officials are still waiting for approval from Health Canada for the consumption of street drugs at the site and the plan is to open in March or April.