As opioids continue to claim lives in the Sault, CAO Malcolm White says city staff are consulting with other communities; no indication yet on when or where facility will open
An effort to deliver a Supervised Consumption and Treatment site to Sault Ste. Marie is still in the planning stages, but the city’s lead for the project says it is imperative to gather as much information as possible from the other communities that have already opened one in order to get it right.
The first approved supervised consumption sites started opening in 2017 and 2018. Those initial sites were approved under the previous Liberal provincial government, with an exemption provided by Health Canada under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. According to the latest statistics released by the Office of the Chief Coroner, Sault Ste. Marie recorded the third-highest opioid death rate in the province for the year 2022, behind only Thunder Bay and Sudbury.
“It’s well understood that it needs to be a part of the solution here, so it is very important to get it right because there isn’t a lot of room for error, in my view, in setting it up and getting it operating and it needs a lot of partners,” said White. In January, Timmins City Council approved operating funding of the site, at a cost of $85,833 per month, with hopes the province will reimburse that amount once permanent funding is secured.
In March, a total of 2,559 visits were made to the site, with 25 overdoses recorded. None of those overdoses required a call to EMS.
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