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Premier Doug Ford said the province will soon complete its review of customer care and care facility (CTS) sites.
“It’s funny that you say that. I was talking about it today at my workplace,” Ford said at a separate news conference in Essex on Monday morning.
Locally, Safe Health Site Timmins (SHST) will close on March 31 unless new investment comes in. Located on Cedar Street North, it is a place where other people can use medications received in the past in the presence of trained doctors. Corps of workers and those assigned to the services.
Last year, SHST won approval from Health Canada to create a permanent facility, allowing it to turn to the province for funding.
Immediately after receiving federal approval, Ontario suspended all new and pending STC programs following an outdoor shooting at a Toronto site last summer. The site’s operators, advocates and opposition parties called on the government to hurry up, saying lives were being lost.
Michael Tibollo, associate minister for fitness and addictions, estimated a two-month deadline for the review two months ago.
Ford has hinted that it will not replace the total number of sites in the province, which his government has limited to 21.
“In total we had announced that there would be 21 sites. We’re at 17, so there’s 4 left,” he said.
SHST opened its business in July 2022.
For the first year and a half, the allocation was funded solely through the City of Timmins. The municipal cash ended on December 31, 2023, when TImmins and the district hospital stepped in to provide investment for 3 months. This investment ends on March 31.
Last week, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition sent an open letter to Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo. It has 8 calls to action, adding emergency investments for intake sites that have been implemented during the province’s cash and are about to close or have closed due to lack of funds.
On Friday, about a dozen people protested outside the office of Timmins MPP George Pirie, and it’s not easy to get action to keep OHSH open.
—With Jack Hauen’s files
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