‘There is fear’: Delegates beg region to advocate for consumption sites

With Kitchener’s Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site having been closed for nearly two weeks, advocates are now pushing the region to defend and fight the province for its return.

It comes following a Community and Health Services committee meeting with the Region of Waterloo on Tuesday, where a motion was put forward requesting the municipality pen a letter to the provincial government. It asked that the region make its stance known on its need for a CTS site.

“At the core, the motion is about sending a letter to the province. A letter, that’s it, that’s the request,” said Michael Parkinson with the Waterloo Region Drug Action Team. “It is difficult to imagine any rationale or any number of deaths and injuries that could substantiate defeating a simple request to send a letter.”

He said the message that the community is pushing to send is the same story they’ve been telling since the issues were brought forward originally.

“At this stage, it ought to be crystal clear. The evidence says yes to supervised consumption services. Your community says yes to supervised consumption services. And it’s a list that’s just too long to name in five minutes.”

In response to its shift in how it looks to tackle homelessness and the province’s drug crisis, the Ontario government instituted Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs. While the requested motion hopes to send a letter vying for the return of CTS sites, advocates said it doesn’t mean the closure of those HART Hubs.

“The reality is we need both the HART hub and the CTS,” said committee member Pam Wolf, who also was the member who put forward the motion. “We welcome the increased funding from the province for the HART hub and only wish it had come on time.”

Since 2019, the site had seen over 63,000 visitors, helping over 1,500 people experiencing an overdose. Rob Schmidt, a homeless man living in Kitchener, spoke at the committee meeting, saying it’s been an emotional few months having to endure the closure of the site.

“I live alone, I camp outside, I’ve been homeless for six years,” said Schmidt. “In that time, I woke up on the ground, not knowing what had happened. And it’s scary sinking feeling that you get, not knowing that maybe next time will be my last.”

Other delegates spoke at the meeting, including Kevin White, a resident of Kitchener.

“They got involved in the local music scene, they became involved in computer programming, they went off to university for math. It was a very strange feeling to wake up on my birthday, and my first thought was not celebratory in any way but just, ‘I am older than they will ever be.'”

“There is fear in your community, more than you know,” said Parkinson. “Fear and panic of people dying, of people being injured, that fear is not irrational.”

Regional council will make a decision on the motion at a council meeting on April 23.