Early data highlights benefits of safe consumption sites in two northern Ont. cities

It's been a little over a year since two supervised consumption sites opened their doors in northeastern Ontario. 

The area is home to four of the five cities with the highest opioid mortality rate in the province.

The Safe Health Site in Timmins started providing services in July 2022 and saw a total of 24,168 visits in the 12 months that followed. 

About half of these visits were to consume pre-obtained substances, and the other half were to connect with harm reduction services. 

The facility served 366 different people in a city that is home to about 40,000 people.

Its staff intervened in 130 overdoses, with no fatalities. 

Only seven per cent of these overdoses required a call to emergency medical services.

"It's tough to define what success is, as we're one of the first sites in the north to have something like this," says Patrick Nowak, program manager for addictions and outpatient mental health at the Timmins and District Hospital. 

"Overall, I think we're doing alright, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next couple of months brings." 

Nowak believes the downtown location of the site and the opening hours have "played a big part in people's decision to access services."

Looking at a year's worth of data, Nowak is surprised by the number of people who visited the site to access basic medical care, like treating a wound.

"We have 245 cases where that sort of care is happening (...) I don't think we were expecting that much," he said. 

The facility currently runs on an urgent public health need permit and is temporarily funded by the city. 

Recently, the Canadian Mental Health Association Cochrane-Timiskaming branch submitted an application to the federal government for Safe Health Site Timmins to become a permanent facility.

If approved, it would pave the way for the facility to request provincial funding.

Operations slowed down by funding, staffing issues

Sudbury's supervised consumption site, The Spot, celebrated its opening in June 2022, but couldn't offer services until September because of staffing shortages. 

The Spot already obtained its authorizations from Health Canada, and has been awaiting funding from the province since it began its operations. 

In the absence of funding, the site can only run 6 hours per day, between 10 am and 4 pm. 

Reseau Access Network's manager of Supervised Consumption Services, Amber Fritz, says the organization would like to offer services 12 hours a day. 

"We definitely have folks who say I tried to come by last night, but you were closed," she said. 

"It's really hard for us to hear because we're the only supervised consumption site in the city of Greater Sudbury, so if we're not open, the other option is to use elsewhere, in the parks alone or what have you."

Since the beginning of the year, the site has supervised 1088 instances of people using drugs. 

It has offered services to 237 individuals and responded to 10 incidents of drug poisoning. 

The organization no longer uses the term overdose, as it implies that people are taking too much of something, when the core issue is the toxicity of the drug supply, explained Fritz. 

Elsewhere in the northeast 

Sault Ste. Marie had the second highest mortality rate in the province in 2022. 

The newly elected municipal officials passed a resolution to look into establishing a safe consumption site early in their mandate. 

The city's CAO, Malcolm White is spearheading the effort. 

"We're still in the exploratory phase of that," he said. "We're making some headway in our discussions with potential agencies." 

He says there are many challenges to setting up an operation like that. 

"Many of the healthcare and service agencies are busy fulfilling their own mandates, and everybody is struggling with workforce issues.

"They simply don't have the resources at this time," said White, adding that the matter of provincial funding represents a challenge as well.

White will retire in early 2024, and he doesn't expect to see a supervised consumption site in Sault Ste. Marie before then. 

"I hope to lay the groundwork for the people that come after me," he said. 

As for North Bay, a feasibility study was conducted to determine if the city could host an overdose prevention site. 

When the results of the study were presented to the District of Nipissing Social Services Administration Board's September 2022 meeting, it was concluded that there were too many obstacles to establishing a service like that in the area. 

"At this point in time, availability of resources (financial or human) is a significant barrier," reads a document obtained by CBC News. 

The board also says it could not find a lead agency to operate a supervised consumption site.