‘People are worthy of life’: Kitchener passes pair of motions to advocate for CTS sites

The City of Kitchener Council and members of the public were in the chambers well past midnight on Monday discussing the future of Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) sites in the municipality and across Ontario.

A pair of motions were passed as the Sanguen Health Centre in Kitchener faces termination from decisions made by the provincial government to close CTS sites in Ontario by March 2025.

What unfolded was a nearly three-hour discussion as more than 20 delegates, all in favour of keeping CTS sites open, presented compelling arguments and shared vulnerable stories of addiction.

Jess Halliday, one of the delegates, recounted a time when she reused needles and used water from toilets and puddles without a CTS site available, and times where she was robbed and assaulted while purchasing drugs without safe supply.

“If we lost these services, we’ll most certainly lose people to unnecessary and preventable death due to drug poisonings, and they will not be here to tell you their story,” she said. “People are worthy of life, even if society doesn’t agree with how they live it.”

“Dead people don’t make it to treatment; nice people use drugs,” added Halliday.

Michael Parkinson of the WR Drug Action Team said the political nature of the topic has a negative effect on the public health approach that needs to be taken to prevent more drug-related deaths.

“We have a hostile provincial government that is implicated in the deaths of more than 21,000 people since their election in 2018,” he said. “That’s basically the entire population of Wilmot.”

Parkinson noted that although the Ford government says no lives will be lost as a result of CTS site closures, there’s evidence in Waterloo Region that supports the exact opposite.

Director of Consumption & Treatment Services Violet Umanetz echoed Parkinson’s statements.

“As I stand here today, there are literally hundreds of names and faces that we will lose if we cannot find a way to keep this open,” said Umanetz.

Dawn Eveland, a mother, remembers a time when she and her young children would walk around Kitchener, and she would pick up needles so that other children wouldn’t walk by and think seeing needles on the street is normal.

She found Sanguen Health Centre, and they gave her a sharps container to dispose of the needles.

One day, she noticed something had changed.

“At some point I realized there weren’t any (needles), because (employees of the Sanguen Health Centre) were doing their job so well,” said Eveland. “There weren’t people crouching on Mike Wagner bench shooting up, and there weren’t needles in the stairwell next to the Cameron Heights Highschool.”

Eveland added that the CTS site helps children see a better future.

Councillor Scott Davey noted that delegates are “screaming into the void,” and that he felt it was unfortunate the discussion was happening at a level of government who allegedly don’t have the ability to enact meaningful change on this topic.

Councillor Dave Schnider introduced an additional motion, stating that the city should encourage Regional Chair Karen Redman to urge the Minister of Health Sylvia Jones and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo to meet with the people like those who presented to council on Monday.

Schnider’s motion passed unanimously, and Chapman’s motion passed with 10 votes in favour and one opposed, that being Ward 5 Councillor Ayo Owodunni.