Still no movement for establishment of Consumption and Treatment Services site in Cambridge

The creation of a Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site in Cambridge remains in limbo amid a provincial moratorium on applications.

In 2021, Cambridge council endorsed a plan that would see 150 Main St. become the preferred location for that community’s first CTS. The following May, the AIDS Committee of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area (ACCKWA) said it would apply to operate the potential site.

Following the provincial election in 2018, Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government capped funding for CTS programs to 21 sites. Since then, the funding has not kept up with demand and several supervised consumption sites have closed.

ACCKWA is among dozens of health care professionals, organizations, addiction specialists, and community advocates that signed or endorsed an open letter to the Ministry of Health, demanding increased funding for CTS locations.

The letter makes several recommendations that could drastically reduce the number of overdose deaths in the province.

ACCKWA Executive Director Ruth Cameron said in an email to CityNews Kitchener, that if the province were to adopt those recommendations, ACCKWA would be able to proceed with its application to operate a CTS in Cambridge.

Until that happens, it’s a waiting game.

“The approaches outlined in the letter address the needs of vulnerable community members, using evidence-based approaches that respect individual autonomy and do not force people who use drugs into either withdrawal or into treatment modalities that can increase risk of death in the same manner as overdose,” wrote Cameron.

Provincial data shows nine people die of a drug overdose in Ontario every day.

The province has been plagued by overdose deaths from an increasingly toxic supply of illegal drugs.

Last month, the City of Belleville declared a state of emergency after 23 people overdosed in a two day period.