‘This isn’t going to go away’: Intense discussion leads to regional council voting to save safe consumption sites

Regional council is going to take-up the fight to save a safe consumption and treatment site (CTS) in Kitchener after the province announced plans to defund the program.

Region of Waterloo Councillor Rob Deutschmann tabled a motion at the Community and Health Services committee meeting Tuesday morning. It calls on council to advocate to the province to reverse the decision.

Council heard from a handful of delegates, and engaged in an hour-long discussion on the impacts of passing the motion, and on the state of addiction services in Waterloo Region as a whole.

During his address, Deutschmann he said the site at 150 Duke St. W has done exactly what it was intended to do.

“For advocates who work in the field everyday, they consider the Kitchener CTS to be successful. The CTS has saved many lives, reversed overdoses, has provided those with drug addictions a safe place to inject and when ready, a pathway to treatment.”

Councillors had differing opinions on the Ford government’s plans to close CTS sites.

“When Premier Ford asked for studies on existing CTS sites in Toronto, those studies indicated the CTS sites should stay, and even expand,” explained Councillor Pam Wolf. “Not liking this result, he went to the court of public opinion.”

“Public opinion should not dictate health matters, for health matters we need doctors, experts, and scientific evidence,” added Wolf.

Councillor Doug Craig had a different opinion on how elected officials should weigh the opinions of the public.

“Politicians don’t lead public opinion, they follow it, and I think that’s why Premier Ford has in fact come down with this edict,” said Craig.

“This isn’t going to go away, in terms of addiction issues, with regards to the flood of illegal drugs coming into the country, into the region, and we’re going to be living with this for a long time,” added Craig.

Deutschmann aimed at those who claimed the costs of a CTS outweighed the benefits.

“Kitchener CTS has reversed 1,031 overdoses. At $1,600 per reversal, that’s a $1.65-million savings to our community,” he said. “If you close the CTS, you shift provincial funding to the municipal tax base. And you can expect the number of overdoses to be even greater without access to all the services of the CTS.”

He pointed out that when an overdose occurs outside a safe consumption site, police, fire and EMS must respond. If the patient requires hospitalization, that could lead to increased ambulance offload times and even more crowding in emergency departments.

Cambridge mayor Jan Liggett was critical of the provincial government for how little funding is being provided to the region for the implementation and operation of the new HART hubs, the Ford government’s answer to closing CTS sites.

“We have to go forward and say ‘What are the hubs going to offer? What do we want to see out of this?’ and focus on increasing the funds for that,” said Liggett. “I think the amount that’s being given is not anywhere near enough. Unless it’s about a billion dollars a year, we aren’t going to get through this, not in our lifetime.”

As the discussion honed in on financial and infrastructure impacts, Councillor Colleen James commented on what she labelled a lack of compassion being shown for the people who access addiction services.

“I am at a loss for some of the ways in which the discussion has played out with the lack of empathy right now,” said James. “This is another example of where governments are making decisions that are impacting people.”

“We don’t know where this will go, but I think we have a duty to advocate for people who are part of this region,” said James.

Councillor Natasha Salonen retorted to the implication of a lack of empathy from Councillor James.

“I find it unsettling that you would consider that council is not considering our residents in this discussion,” said Salonen. “This is a topic that does impact everyone in our community, many of which are some of our most vulnerable.”

Last month, Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced the province was changing regulations, banning the sites within 200 meters of schools and child care centres. That would result in the closure of 10 CTS sites across Ontario including the Duke St. location and a site in downtown Guelph.

At the same time, the province announced it would not be funding new sites.