Shepherds trailer injection site wins federal approval
OK comes as city, province spar over unsanctioned tent nearby
A trailer at the Shepherds of Good Hope became Ottawa’s third legal supervised injection site late Monday.
Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced in a news release that the federal government has approved an exemption permitting Inner City Health Ottawa to operate a sanctioned injection site in the trailer.
It becomes the fifth such site funded by the province. Hoskins said the province would provide nearly $500,000 in operating funds.
The announcement came as Mayor Jim Watson and the provincial government quarrelled over a fourth unsanctioned site two blocks away.
The province never called Ottawa City Hall to offer cold-weather assistance for the Overdose Prevention Ottawa (OPO) injection tent in Lowertown, according to Watson, even though the province is adamant it made the offer to the mayor’s office.
“We were never formally asked about it. We didn’t get any call. The first we heard of it was in fact from the media,” Watson said on Monday. “When we contacted local MPPs to find out what was happening, they were trying to get information from the provincial government.”
Last Friday, Hoskins said the city government declined the province’s offer to provide a heated tent for OPO to use in Raphael Brunet Park.
There’s no clear indication who’s right in this bizarre disagreement.
The province stuck to its version on Monday, saying Watson’s office was asked about assisting the tent operation, but refusing to say who, exactly, turned down the offer. The premier’s office and MPP John Fraser also spoke with the mayor’s office, according to the province.
It’s clear, however, that Watson prefers that the upper governments support sanctioned injection sites, rather than the volunteer-run tent in Raphael Brunet Park.
Watson on Monday also referenced a situation in Toronto where the province provided a heated injection tent but advised against using an open flame inside the tent, rendering the tent useless for drug users who need to light a flame.
In Ottawa, some councillors were upset the city allegedly decided to reject provincial assistance for the OPO tent without receiving council’s advice, but they, too, were trying to figure out the truth.
“I’m not thinking of a council solution on this,” Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper said, adding that there needs to be more discussion between OPO and the city.
Watson said his priority is to get funding for the “legal, permitted use” injection sites: the Ottawa Public Health (OPH) clinic on Clarence Street, the planned site at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre and the Ottawa Inner City Health site at the Shepherds of Good Hope.
The OPH clinic, Shepherds of Good Hope and Ralph Brunet Park are within blocks of each other.
“I would say put your money in our legitimate sites,” Watson said.
“In fact, I know my office talked to one official from the provincial government, they weren’t even aware the other site was 90 seconds away, and it is literally 90 seconds away.”
Watson said he toured the Shepherds’ supervised injection site on Sunday. It’s in a trailer in the building’s parking lot.
“I was very impressed with the professionalism and the work that has gone in,” Watson said. “I’m glad the province has delivered the funding to open that particular site. I think that’s a sensible location to have it. It’s going to be warm, it’s going to be protected, staffed by professionals and right beside the Shepherds of Good Hope.”
The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre also has a federal exemption, but doesn’t know when its supervised injection site will be ready at its Nelson Street building.
OPH has been running a temporary supervised injection site at its Clarence Street clinic using Sandy Hill’s exemption.
The trailer-based “clubhouse” site at the Shepherds of Good Hope has eight injection stations and a post-injection “chill out” area where drug users can relax, watch Netflix and play PS4 games. Health Canada inspected it on Monday.
Wendy Muckle, executive director of Ottawa Inner City Health, which will run the 24/7 injection service, said it cost just under $30,000 to set up the trailer. Operations will cost about $800,000 annually. The province is funding it.
She said some volunteers with OPO will be trained to work at the Shepherds’ injection site, helping drug users transition to the services inside the trailer. Once the injection trailer gets federal approval, OPO volunteers will decide if it needs to keep operating the tent at Raphael Brunet Park.
She said “even if there’s not a need for service in this community, I think we can all anticipate that there are other communities which have an urgent need and I’m not sure whether OPO will turn their attention to those, but hopefully they will.”