The chair of the Windsor Essex County Health Unit Board is concerned about the future of the region's safe consumption site after the province announced it would be pausing new applications.
The province launched a "critical incident review" after a woman was killed by a stray bullet near a consumption site in Toronto.
Windsor's SafePoint consumption and treatment site opened in April after receiving Health Canada approval but the board was still waiting on provincial approval for funding.
"We really need to know time lines of how long this review is going to be so that we have an understanding of when the ministry is going to make a decision on the funding," said Board Chair Fabio Costante.
For this calendar year, the board was prepared to cover operational costs of SafePoint with WECHU's budget without asking local municipalities for any additional funding.
"As we get into 2024 budget cycle this type of model is not sustainable. We need the province to give direction and to let us know time lines on this review," said Costante. "For Safepoint to be sustainable long term it needs provincial funding."
Safepoint has been open to clients since April 26, 2023. Since then, there have been 600 visits to the site.
"We've not seen any issues in and around the site and the surrounding neighbourhood that's connected to the site," said Costante. "In my view, it's been a great success since we've launched, we believe that the numbers will continue to increase and we'll be able to continue to help more and more people in our community. But we need some certainty from the province."
The WECHU Board will be finalizing the 2024 budget on November 20, 2023.
Costante said they have reached out to the province and have asked for a response by October 13.
