Timmins mayor encouraged by Ontario funding for homelessness and addiction hubs

Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau offered her views on the province's plans to reduce the number of safe consumption sites and build new, full service hubs to tackle homelessness, mental health and addiction issues without supervised consumption services.

Speaking to reporters at this week's Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) annual meeting in Ottawa, Boileau lamented the decision to order 10 safe consumption sites to close by March 2025 and to end the funding application process for others. But she applauded the plan to invest $378 million for Homelessness Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs. 

"It is a response to what AMO members have been asking for, and that's additional resources to be able to respond to mental health and addiction crises that we're facing in all of our communities," Boileau said.

Boileau said for Timmins, the announcement means the open application that was in place for a permanent safe consumption site will no longer be considered.

However, she added that at the community level, they were watching the clock tick down and had already started shifting their approach to one of building an integrated service model that would include more recovery and treatment.

Boileau said Timmins and other northern cities have been grappling with this issue more than other communities.

"Timmins is seeing high numbers of opioid toxicity and opioid-related overdose fatalities. We've been ranked among the top 10 municipalities across the province for overdose fatalities in the past few years, and Timmins isn't unique," she said.

"The five larger northern cities — Timmins, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie — have all been ranked among the top 10." 

On the province's decision to shift away from supervised consumption sites, the mayor said she still believes they are part of the solution to the addiction crisis.

"Medically supervised consumption sites are one part of the greater system that needs to be built to be able to address the crisis. They can be a pathway into treatment and recovery, so I do see them as being a key component to the overall network of support services that are required to address this issue," she said.

Boileau stressed that individual communities need to be included in the creation of the proposed HART Hubs.

"I, along with my colleagues at AMO, do maintain that our municipalities are best positioned to be assemble to determine what's required in our communities, what's required to meet the needs of our residents, and our local partners in order to be able to do the work that have to do on the ground."

Boileau noted northern Ontario is also in a unique place with regard to health equity and access compared to the south.

"Northern Ontario spans a region that's larger than Italy and France combined. We do see a gap in services, and we hope that with this week's announcement, the government will be looking to fill that gap

The mayor pointed to a plan already in place in her community that could be what the Ford government has in mind for treatment centres.

"We have already developed a proposal for something similar, a wellness centre for the Cochrane District. It's something that we feel aligns closely with the model the government has planned. So we'll be looking forward to seeing what the application will entail and what kind of adjustments we might have to make, but our government partners have received that proposal earlier this week."