‘Extremely concerning’: Two northern Ontario safe consumption sites fear closure
Global News
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.
SUDBURY, Ont. — 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.”
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.”