Region wants to know where province stands on local injection sites

Health minister says temporary sites decision coming soon

WATERLOO REGION — Regional chair Ken Seiling sent a letter to Premier Doug Ford wondering where the province stands on supervised injection sites.

In the letter, on behalf of regional council, Seiling asks Ford if the province plans on funding drug consumption sites.

“I am writing to you today with an urgent request for information and direction,” Seiling wrote in a letter dated June 29.

Seiling said during the election “there were indications that (Ford) did not support this approach.”

Seiling told Ford that the region is dealing with a “severe” problem of drug overdoses and deaths.

Last year 85 people died of opioid-related overdoses in Waterloo Region.

“This is an urgent issue, one that sees lives at risk and a timely decision necessary,” Seiling’s letter stated.

Locally, the Region of Waterloo Public Health is considering two sites — one in Kitchener and one in Cambridge — even though the city has passed a bylaw banning sites from the downtown core areas.

Seiling said he received a response from Ford, which said the file had been taken up by the health minister.

Last week, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the government is reviewing evidence on the sites — both temporary and permanent locations.

Elliott said the potential sites are being examined to see if they “have merit” and are worth continuing.

Elliott said a decision on temporary sites, which are set to close by August, will be made soon. The government will also rule on the permanent program as a whole, she said.

Seiling said the region can’t go ahead with the two proposed sites if the provincial government doesn’t agree to the move.

“At the end of the day, we can’t go ahead. It’s not only funding. The province has to support the application (exemption to use drugs) to the federal government.”

“There are lots of big questions,” Seiling said in an interview Tuesday.

Regional Coun. Elizabeth Clarke said she’s hopeful that the Ford government is consulting on future sites and hasn’t ruled out consumption sites.

Clarke said regional council has asked public health to provide a cost estimate — by the next regional meeting Aug. 14 — on setting up a site.

Because wraparound services will be provided by House of Friendship and by the Downtown Community Health Centre, costs to run the site shouldn’t be exorbitant, said Clarke, who thinks it will cost about $300,000 to run a site.

“I don’t think that is prohibitive,” she said.