Mayor Matthew Shoemaker is responding to comments made by an Ontario cabinet minister about mental health and addictions projects during a visit to Sault Ste. Marie last month.
Michael Tibollo, Ontario’s associate minister of Mental Health and Additions, was in the Sault on Jan. 9 for the opening of the Algoma Youth Wellness Hub, which will offer a safe space for vulnerable and at-risk youth and is funded, in part, through Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario.
Jordan Allard, Shoemaker's communications and policy advisor, told SooToday on Thursday that the mayor was not able to attend the Jan. 9 opening of the local Youth Wellness Hub and has yet to meet with Tibollo face to face.
"In all of his correspondence regarding this issue, he has asked the recipients to meet or speak with him, but we haven’t received any uptake," said Allard.
During an interview at the event with SooToday, Tibollo responded to a question about comments made by Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and then-CAO Malcolm White regarding a lack of investments in mental health and addictions projects in northern Ontario, including supervised consumption sites.
Asked about those comments during the interview last month, Tibollo fired back.
“People want to score points politically and suggest we are not doing anything, I challenge them to tell me clinically how what we are doing is not creating a continuum of care to help the people of the north, because I will argue all day long — not based on fiction, but based on knowledge and fact and studies that are peer reviewed — that the investments that are being made are targeted to ensure that we build a treatment and recovery continuum to make sure people are getting the supports and services they need,” said Tibollo in the interview.
“To suggest that we are not addressing the issue is really, to me, counter intuitive to what we are doing,” he continued. “What I would like to hear from them is suggestions as to how we improve treatment and recovery and continue to grow and develop the systems that we have in place.”
On Thursday, just over a month after the visit, Shoemaker penned a letter to Tibollo and Premier Doug Ford in response to those comments, framed around the most recent data released last week by the Office of the Chief Coroner regarding opiod overdose deaths. The statistics showed that the toxic drug death rate in Algoma was nearly three times the provincial average in the third quarter of 2023.
In his letter, Shoemaker told Tibollo that although those statistics are concerning for Sault Ste. Marie, they show the promise in communities where supervised consumption sites have been operating.
“For example, Thunder Bay and Sudbury have supervised consumption sites, and both saw decreases in emergency department visits and hospitalizations for the third quarter of 2023, while Sault Ste. Marie experienced sharp increases in emergency department visits and hospitalizations during the same period,” Shoemaker wrote.
In his letter, Shoemaker also notes that he and former mayor Christian Provenzano reached out to the Ford government ten times about support for the mental health and addiction crisis.
The full letter from Shoemaker to Tibollo can be seen below:
Premier Ford and Minister Tibollo:
I am writing to you regarding concerning data released on February 7 by the Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario for the third quarter of 2023. Once again, it shows that Sault Ste. Marie has higher than provincial average rates of opioid-related emergency department visits (2x provincial rate), hospitalizations (3x provincial rate) and deaths (0.6x provincial rate). The statistics clearly demonstrate the need for Sault Ste. Marie to receive increased support from the Government of Ontario in a prompt manner.
During a recent visit to Sault Ste. Marie for the grand opening of the Algoma Youth Wellness Hub, Minister Tibollo told the media he was looking for the City of Sault Ste. Marie to communicate the local needs to the government: “What I would like to hear from them is suggestions as to how we improve treatment and recovery and continue to grow and develop the systems that we have in place.”
Myself or my predecessor have written to your government about support for the mental health and addictions crisis on 10 instances (March 11, 2019, May 8, 2019, May 22, 2019, September 9, 2020, August 18, 2021, July 14, 2022, July 18, 2022, December 20, 2022 and November 30, 2023) and I wanted to take this opportunity to reiterate what is outlined in the aforementioned correspondence in the event what we are seeking isn’t clear or readily apparent. Minister Tibollo’s comments to the media suggest this is the case, in spite of frequent correspondence and advocacy.
In June 2021, the Sault Area Hospital submitted an application to the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health North for mental health and addictions community-based programming, which included a funding request for the Concurrent Disorders Intensive Day Treatment Pilot Program. The program provides badly needed specialized care for those with complex addictions and mental health needs. In the summer of 2022, Sault Area Hospital announced it had suspended its Concurrent Disorders Intensive Day Treatment Pilot Program due to a lack of funding.
In January 2024, 30 months later, Sault Area Hospital was informed that the Government of Ontario would fund a limited return of two months for the program. I want to thank your government for its support, but reiterate the need for the dedicated base funding required for the hospital to offer the program on a permanent basis.
I’ve also reached out to your government regarding the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) University. The collaborative efforts between NOSM University and Algoma University to research and develop mental health and addiction solutions locally offers potential hope in addressing a continent-wide problem, but their work is jeopardized without increased, stable funding from the Government of Ontario.
Furthermore, the City has taken an active role in working with community partners to establish a supervised consumption site in Sault Ste. Marie. The pause on new applications by your government will prevent such a site from opening, though I am glad to learn this may be concluded within the next month as promised by Minister Tibollo while in Sault Ste. Marie. I am also hopeful your government will address the funding shortfall that has prompted other northern municipalities to fund supervised consumption sites on a temporary basis.
The recently released data referenced at the outset of this letter illustrates the challenge we’re facing, but it also demonstrates a potential positive trend in communities with supervised consumption sites. For example, Thunder Bay and Sudbury have supervised consumption sites, and both saw decreases in emergency department visits and hospitalizations for the third quarter of 2023, while Sault Ste. Marie experienced sharp increases in emergency department visits and hospitalizations during the same period.
As I’m sure you’re aware, at the municipal level we can advocate, but we cannot put City dollars into hospitals, treatment facilities and medical schools. That funding needs to come from the Ontario Government, it says so in the Constitution.
In Minister Tibollo’s comments made during his visit to Sault Ste. Marie in January, he said he wanted to hear suggestions. Once again, the City of Sault Ste. Marie is providing them.
Moving forward, I urge the Government of Ontario to act in support of these suggestions with the zeal Minister Tibollo used to defend your government to the media.
I would gladly make myself available to you, at your earliest possible convenience, to discuss this matter further.
Sincerely,
MATTHEW M. SHOEMAKER
Mayor, Sault Ste. Marie
CC The Honourable Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health
Ross Romano, Sault Ste. Marie MPP
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