The first five sites for a supervised drug consumption venue in Sudbury have all been rejected, but that doesn't mean the project is dead in the water.
Sudbury public health nurse Josée Joliat, the co-ordinator of the Community Drug Strategy, said the first five locations that expressed interest in hosting a physical venue all had shortcomings. None of the venues was identified. Joliat said the initial call for expressions of interest had a deadline of Nov. 10. The fact there was an active search for a venue seemed to spawn some additional interest after that.
"We did get a couple of community members who did approach us afterwards to indicate they were interested in potentially hosting the supervised consumption services," said Joliat.
She said in the interests of due diligence, those new sites would be considered. If they’re not suitable, a new call for interest will be put out to the public.
"We are hoping that maybe through these added interests, maybe our location will be found. But if that is not the case, then we will have to re-issue the expression of interest as we did before," said Joliat.
"By re-issuing the process, maybe other people will come forward. We are definitely reaching out to all of our partners and trying to start up conversations to see what is possible."
Joliat is not discouraged. She is confident there are many suitable properties in the downtown area, and given the size of downtown Sudbury, she believes it could be a case of property owners not giving the idea any due consideration in the first call for interest.
"It is definitely not the end of the road for us. We still have some possibilities and now we are looking into those possibilities, and so we are still remaining hopeful our location will be found," she said.
She said it is important to find a venue that identifies with all the needs outlined in the original call for interest as those criteria have been set out by higher levels of government.
There are several factors that the drug strategy group is also considering:
- A location that is not within 200 meters of a child care centre, park or school is preferred.
- The location should be within the downtown core and have 1,500 to 2,000 square feet.
- The location must have accessible washrooms for staff and clients.
- The location must have the ability to have three rooms (service intake, consumption, and post-consumption care). Ideally the consumption room should have the ability to add a hand and foot washing station.
As well, the consumption and post-consumption rooms in this location must be accessible to paramedics and first responders, said the document.
"We want to make sure that whatever collaboration or partnership that is established with this landlord is a good one. We also want to make sure that the requirements that are needed by us, from the government, are there," said Joliat.
She said the criteria is not changed.
"There is some wiggle room, enough to work with a landlord and being able to make sure their location does fit what we need. It's just a matter of finding that right fit. We've got to shop around and see what we can find," she added.
Joliat also said there was not any outstanding reason or common failure for rejecting the first five sites.
"I don't think there was one single element that came up. I think there was a mix of them," she said.
Joliat said this included lack of space, lack of accessibility, too close to residential areas, improper zoning and not being close enough to existing social and health services in the downtown core.
She said all the important factors were spelled out in the community needs assessment and feasibility study carried out last year.
As for a timeline for the project, Joliat said there are too many factors that are beyond the scope of the health unit or the community drug strategy to lock into a firm timeline. She said the group hopes to submit applications for federal and provincial approvals at the same time, something she believes could take up to six months.
She said one of the applications will appeal to the federal government for an exemption that will legally allow drug users to be able to inject substances within the premises. The other application is the provincial request for funding.
"From the Community Drug Strategy perspective, this is still a very high priority for us and we want to push forward as quickly as we can. We are working to find that perfect, or near-perfect, location for us, right, so that we don't encounter any added obstacles. It's just a matter of making sure we do our due diligence."
