Although Greater Sudbury’s supervised consumption site’s opening hinges on final approval from the federal government, Sudbury’s Liberal MP said she’s confident it will be granted.
“All the partners are working very diligently on this, and we are very optimistic that we will receive approval for the exemption,” Viviane Lapointe told Sudbury.com on Friday.
“It’s important because evidence would tell us that supervised consumption sites do reduce harm and save lives.”
Earlier this week, it was revealed the supervised consumption site’s grand opening had been delayed due to global supply chain issues, minor change orders and ground dethawing. The facility had originally been scheduled to open this month.
When open, the building will provide a space for drug users to inject their drugs while being supervised by medical professionals. The harm-reduction effort is being municipally funded until such time as the province steps forward with funding, at $1.1 million in annual operational costs. The city is expected to cover approximately $800,000 in startup costs for the facility currently under construction at Energy Court, behind the Your Independent Grocer on Lorne Street.
The federal government shouldn’t contribute to any further delays, Lapointe said, noting that before it’s able to legally open the city will need to apply for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
“Health Canada has to come and do a site tour – a site visit – and that has to occur before you receive that final approval for the exemption,” she said, adding that this can only be done once construction is completed. Tentative dates have been set up for the tour, but those will be confirmed once construction is completed.
The city is the lead on construction, Réseau ACCESS is the lead on operations and Public Health Sudbury and Districts is taking care of securing the exemption.
“They’re working very closely with Health Canada,” Lapointe said, adding that they’re in frequent contact, meaning twice a week on average as a potential opening date approaches.
“Health Canada’s process for granting exemptions is a very thorough and careful process, and that cannot be interfered with,” she said. “What I’ve been doing is checking in and ensuring the process is still underway and there are no obstacles, and flowing that information back to key partners in Sudbury.”
Also in the works is a transitional housing complex on Lorraine Street, for which city council issued unanimous support during 2022 budget deliberations last year.
At the time, the city had yet to receive final confirmation of $7.4 million in Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation funding for the project, but Lapointe confirmed to Sudbury.com that the funding had been approved. The facility will provide medical and social support for the chronically homeless to transition into permanent community housing.
“That is very important work,” Lapointe said. “It’s one thing to create and build the housing, but you need to have the services that go on inside the building. … We know that the opioid crisis in Sudbury and homelessness are linked.”
Although city administration has settled on a figure of 40 units in recent correspondence with city council regarding the project, the federal funding requires at least 28 units to be created and the team of staff they’re compiling for the project is enough to serve between 40 and 60 clients.
The team of staff is expected to include various medical and social services professionals and consist of 12 full-time and four part-time members. The city is slated to fund these staff members, although they’ve been advocating for provincial funding for these staff members and those at the supervised consumption site.
At the latest update late last year, the transitional housing complex was expected to open within 12 months of final federal funding confirmation. The city hasn’t provided an updated timeline for this or the supervised consumption, although the prevailing message among these projects’ proponents, including Lapointe, is that it should be as soon as possible.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
