Regional council spent over two hours this morning debating whether it should make an appeal to the province to continue drug consumption sites.
The motion, presented by Kitchener councillor Rob Deutschmann at a Community and Health Safety committee meeting would require the region to write to the province and ask health minister Sylvia Jones to cancel a plan to close Waterloo region's only safe consumption site.
The councillors heard from service providers like Sanguen, which run the site, as well as from the head of Waterloo Region Public Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang.
The delegates spoke to the impact the safe consumption sites have on the community and the amount of lives they've saved through harm reduction strategies.
"There is a lot of data and research to prove that the things we're doing from a harm reduction lens are working," said Simone, a harm reduction worker with Sanguen. "This is the type of site that brings people in; you have trained professionals who have lived and living experience and this is a really important core of all the services we have."
Coun. Deutschmann's motion includes the statistic that one person dies every two and a half hours from the toxic drug supply in Ontario. Consumption sites, also known as Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) sites, have been instrumental in preventing thousands of drug overdose deaths.
At the location in Kitchener, Sanguen noted that they have reversed over 1,000 overdoses and serviced 50,000 visits over the past five years.
Deutschmann said when he heard the decision from the province to close the CTS site in Kitchener he was surprised and angry that years of work and evidence from service providers were being ignored by provincial officials.
"These are facilities like the Kitchener CTS that have been developed through extensive review, preparation and collaboration leading to successful implementation. The Kitchener one has been operating effectively for years," he said.
He disputes the province's claim that these sites make the surrounding community more dangerous and said crime rates have actually gone down in the neighbourhood around 150 Duke St.
Ward 10 councillor for Kitchener, Stephanie Stretch, noted that before the site opened, community members, including herself, would find drug paraphernalia regularly. Since then, reports of discarded needles have dropped significantly.
"There was so much fear in the neighborhood that it would worsen and you would see an attraction of a whole bunch of drug addicts that were like zombies... since the CTS has gone in I have seen some paraphernalia around, but it's nowhere close to that way it was," said Stretch.
While some councillors were supportive of the request to the province, others like Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett and Cambridge regional councillor Doug Craig said they're ready to look to the future and the new HART Hub model that will replace CTS sites.
As explained by health minister Sylvia Jones last month, the Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub demonstration project aims to offer a suite of services to patients looking for support and will have a mental health and addictions supportive housing component.
Coun. Craig who chose not to support Deutschmann's motion, wants the region to focus efforts outside of the CTS sites, noting that only a small percentage of those using drugs are actually using the services provided at the site.
"50 people are being seen at the CTS site daily, but my concern is outside of the site," said Craig.
He added the region has been restricted by putting all of their attention into the CTS, and have not been focused on addressing the larger issue at hand.
"I've been trying to stress this, but we need to look upstream and to younger generations and how we're going to stop them from getting involved with drugs," he said.
Mayor Liggett said there is no point in trying to convince the province to reverse its decision and believes the region, along with its partners, need to focus on getting services into the HART Hubs.
"We need to get passed this decision of the government to close the CTS and really focus on what they are offering us, because this is where the solutions lies," Liggett said.
"We have to go forward and say okay, what are the hubs going to offer? What do we want to see out of this and focus on increasing the funds for that."
Liggett also said she knows the money being offered by the province is not nearly enough and they would have to invest nearly $1 billion a year to move the needle.
Dr. Wang said its regional service providers are in the process of applying for a HART Hub to replace the Kitchener CTS. Under the new model, the service provider is allowed to apply for a satellite location and Wang said they are targeting downtown Galt.
"What we see from our data as well as conversations with our service providers is that they want to take advantage of the opportunity presented," she said. "It would make sense for that satellite to be in Cambridge."
Coun. Craig explained his opposition to the sites as an ethical choice, noting that those using the sites "don't understand what's going on."
"Do people that access CTS sites, do they understand the concept of informed consent, are they able to understand what's happening and I don't think they do?" Craig asked. "I would like some data on how long we think this crisis is going to last here in the region and I think it's going to be years into the future."
Regional councillor for Kitchener Colleen James was at a loss for words by how the conversation had devolved when talking about those using CTS sites, noting those around the horseshoe needed more empathy.
"We can't lose sight of this human element and councillor Craig, listening to you saying you don't support CTS, you want all the data; you know what, there are human beings, there are lives being lost and will continue to get lost," she said.
After the motion passed, Deutschmann said it shouldn't be framed as "not us vs. them" but a nonpartisan issue calling for more support.
