Mayor continues fight for safe consumption funding even as Sudbury site closes

Mayor Matthew Shoemaker says the recent closure of a municipally funded supervised consumption site in Sudbury is proof that the province needs to come to the table with funding for the service.

Funding ended March 31 for the supervised consumption service in Sudbury, named The Spot. It had not received provincial funding and, with the ability to apply for that funding closed for an indefinite period, the site was forced to close.

"It really frustrated the management at city hall because they were trying to find a solution,” France Gelinas, MPP for Nickel Belt, told SooToday during a visit to Sault Ste. Marie last week. 

"We know opioid overdoses are way worse in northern Ontario. We [have] three times as many deaths in northern Ontario than there are in southern Ontario. The crisis is real,” she said.

Gelinas said the sites allow for people to safely use drugs in a supervised environment while also allowing them to seek assistance finding treatment options.

“How do we keep people alive so that they can get the care?” said Gelinas. ”Your mental health can be treated, your addiction can be treated, you will be healthy again — if you have access to the care that you need.”

The other key, said Gelinas, is the on-site testing the centres provide to help ensure the drugs being used aren’t part of a bad batch that could lead to a drug poisoning.

“Make sure that they know if you if you bought any of that batch of drugs, it is really potent and there's a good chance that you will overdose,” she said. ”All of this helped all of this is gone.”

In the same interview, NDP leader Marit Stiles said it's hard to put a price tag on saving lives.

“But in this case, we know that this is literally about saving lives,” she said. “Somebody can't find treatment or rehabilitation unless they're alive to do it, right?” 

Safe Health Site Timmins was also set to close on March 31 due to a lack of permanent provincial funding, but the site remains open as it transitions from being operated by the Timmins and District Hospital to CMHA Cochrane-Timiskaming. It had been funded by the City of Timmins from July 2022 to Dec. 31, 2023.

In December, city council in Sault Ste. Marie received a report by then-CAO Malcolm White outlining the possible next steps for an eventual opening of a supervised consumption site in the city.

At the time, White recommended that the city begin the process of applying for a federal exemption that could eventually lead to the establishment of a site. He identified three partner agencies for the city to work with on next steps: Algoma Public Health, Canadian Mental Health Association Algoma and Mental Health and Addictions System Planning Table, a subgroup of the Algoma Ontario Health Team.

None of the partner agencies identified are interested in operating the site themselves, but White said they have expressed interest in assisting the city in the next steps needed to put together the provincial and federal applications necessary to open one. 

Current CAO Tom Vair was not available for an interview for this story to comment on the current state of that application.

Reached by email on Friday, Mayor Matthew Shoemaker told SooToday he will continue to aggressively advocate for things the community needs.

“The closure of the supervised consumption site in Sudbury is a demonstration of what happens without adequate financial support from the province,” he said. “When the pause on approvals for these sites is lifted, a provincial funding commitment needs to be included.”

Last month, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition sent an open letter calling on the province to immediately fund and support supervised consumption sites.