‘Unfair’: Ontario city drops safe consumption bid over years-long delay

With no end in sight to the delay in supervised consummation site approvals, organizers have made the difficult decision to withdraw their application for the Barrie site.

The multiyear campaign ended earlier this week when the Canadian Mental Health Association Simcoe County and Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit released a joint statement.

Applications for a consumption and treatment services site at 11 Innisfil St. were submitted to Health Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Health on Oct. 7, 2021, by the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Simcoe County branch.

The application was approved at the federal level by Health Canada on Sept. 9, 2022, renewed in September 2023, and endorsed by the City of Barrie. Yet since then, applicants say they have had little communication regarding the status of their application.

After years in limbo, the CEO of the local mental health association, Valerie Grdisa, said the applicants couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

“I think it’s unfair to the people who use drugs and their families and Ontario taxpayers that the government can’t make a decision and live by it,” Grdisa said.

“I understand the complexity of the decision, and this is the one intervention in several that needs to occur, but this model of care has been proven to be effective for certain individuals who use drugs, and they just need to make a decision.”

In May 2024 alone, the two agencies reported there were 16 suspected drug-related deaths in Simcoe Muskoka and, on average, 25 suspected overdose emergency department visits in the region every week.

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In 2023, 53 people lost their lives in Barrie to suspected opioid-related poisoning, with 26 people losing their lives so far this year as of June 11.

“It continues to be clear from research on CTS sites in Ontario and elsewhere that they remain a key service to help prevent serious harms to individuals who use drugs and increase uptake of addiction treatment and other health and social services,” said Lisa Simon, associate medical officer of health at the local health unit.

“They also serve the broader community by improving public order and safety through reducing the presence of discarded drug paraphernalia and public drug use.”

To apply to the Ministry of Health, Simcoe County Branch had to have a space already lined up, so it started paying rent for the location. However, Grdisa said the delays and lack of communication from the Ministry of Health have led to over $130,000 going toward renting an underused space.

“Since autumn 2021, we made significant investments in this site because it is a crucial service for the community,” Grdisa said.

“As each month passed, more lives were and continue to be lost in Barrie and Simcoe County to the opioid crisis. Although we appreciate these decisions require careful consideration, we are not comfortable continuing to pay rent without a response when we could be using these funds to meet other needs of the community.”

Global News reached out to the Ministry of Health but has not heard back.

In June 2023, in response to Global News’s questions regarding the delay, the Ministry of Health said it had allocated up to $31.3 million in annual funding for up to 21 consumption and treatment services across the province. That list, however, did not include financing the site in Barrie.

“All applications are subject to a rigorous screening process. Timelines for the application screening process vary; most organizations submit application documents and information over a period of time,” the statement read.

The Ford government put a freeze on its support for supervised consumption sites in August after a Toronto mother was killed in a shooting that took place near a safe consumption site in Leslieville, an incident some in the community linked to the site itself.

Grdisa said that while she understands the government faces difficult decisions when it comes to deciding what to fund, doing nothing and keeping everyone in limbo while the opioid epic continues to plague communities across the country is not solving anything.

She said that while she knows the safe consumption model is effective in meeting people where they are at and helping to lower overdoses, Simcoe County Branch will continue offering its other services to try and address the issue.

“It’s a tragic outcome related to a longstanding issue around what I would have to say is a lot of corruption and poor prescribing practices related to opioids,” Grdisa said.

“I don’t really think the public understands that the people using drugs, most of them are just people living their lives, working in different industries, and they at some point got addicted to opioids — and often due to having it prescribed, related to an injury or health condition.”

— With files from Global News’ Isaac Callan