Windsor City Council will now debate the location of a new safe consumption site downtown next month.
The expectation was councillors would talk about the location on Goyeau Street on Monday, but now the topic will be on the agenda in January.
"We were informed there wasn't enough room on the agenda," said Windsor-Essex County Health Unit CEO Nicole Dupuis. "Our team, internally, as well as working with our community partners [is] preparing -- to complete and have ready the applications."
Public health officials said the matter is urgent. City approval for the site on Goyeau Street near Wyandotte Street East is integral to the health unit's application to the Ministry of Health and Health Canada.
It is the second time the matter has been delayed. Originally, councillors were going to debate it in November.
Acting Medical Officer of Health Doctor Shanker Nesathurai said while the pandemic may have dominated headlines, the more silent pandemic of overdose deaths hasn't gone away.
"They're people just like everyone else," he said. "I think it's incumbent on all of us to get the safe consumption site up and going."
In 2020, there were 77 deaths from overdose in Windsor-Essex, and 2,431 deaths in Ontario, according to Public Health Ontario.
"You know the public health service's role is to advocate for things that aren't always popular," said Nesathurai, acknowledging the site is controversial. "About 2,500 people have died of opioid overdoses. That's many times more than the people who died in car crashes. Having the safe consumption site is one part of an effective strategy to mitigate the opioid crisis."
Overdoses also use a lot of hospital resources. Windsor-Essex had 495 visits to the emergency department in 2020, and 77 people were admitted.
The health unit approved the site last September, but discussion about a safe consumption site downtown started in 2018.
