With the future of Sudbury’s only sanctioned supervised consumption site in jeopardy, Réseau ACCESS Network has launched a public advocacy effort to keep it open.
“The Spot has been a beacon of hope and support for many in the community, providing essential services to those in need,” the petition reads.
“It has been instrumental in reducing overdose deaths, helping prevent the transmission of diseases, and connecting individuals with crucial social and health-care services. Investing in harm reduction services is a proven cost-effective strategy that not only saves lives but also reduces health-care expenditures.”
Réseau ACCESS Network operates The Spot, located at 24 Energy Court behind the Lorne Street Beer Store.
Greater Sudbury city council voted in 2021 to commit $1.1 million per year in funding toward the site on a temporary basis for three years, despite health care being a provincial jurisdiction.
“We have to look at the bigger picture,” Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre said at the time. ”In 2019 and 2020, there were more than 160 fatalities due to opioids. We’re asking for a million dollars for a couple of years to try to reduce that. This is a three-year cost for us, and I as a councillor, as a resident, am willing to eat that.”
There have been at least 483 people in the Greater Sudbury area who have died from opioid toxicity since 2013, and there was a 346-per-cent increase between 2018 and 2022, during which the annual death rate jumped from 26 to 116.
The supervised consumption site opened in September 2022, offering people injecting substances with nearby medical assistance and drug testing services to ensure what they’re using is what they intend. The site received more than 1,000 visits in its first year.
Although the city’s elected officials and local NDP MPPs have advocated for provincial funding, none has come.
The City of Greater Sudbury’s draft budget, which will be tabled Nov. 15 and debated by city council in December, will not include funding for the supervised consumption site.
Sudbury.com has reached out to all 13 members of Greater Sudbury city council to see whether they intend to vote in favour of using municipal funds to keep the site open. An article summarizing their responses will be published in the coming days.
Earlier this month, 16 workers at the supervised consumption site were put on notice that they will likely be losing their jobs on Dec. 31.
Meanwhile, the provincial government has put all funding applications for supervised consumption sites on hold while they develop new safety protocols following a shooting outside of a site in Toronto in July.
Réseau ACCESS Network executive director Heidi Eisenhauer has called the shooting a scapegoat used by the province to not fund sites.
"We recognize we've lost hundreds and hundreds of lives here in Sudbury, and this is a crisis,” she told The Trillium, describing the politicians who stood up to applaud the decision to pause future funding as “shameful.”
For more information on the advocacy effort, visit savethespot.ca. As of mid-day Oct. 14, a petition on the page had 784 signatures of its 1,000-name goal.
