A local advocate for the SafePoint site in Windsor says he has a lot of mixed feelings seeing the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit end their tenancy at the site.
Speaking on AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, Rielly McLaren, a pastor at the Windsor Mennonite Fellowship, says there was a lot of work that went into the site when it opened in April 2023.
Meanwhile, MPP for Windsor-Tecumseh Andrew Dowie says CTS sites throughout Ontario are showing elevated crime statistics, and an increase in fatal overdoses.
The Health Unit announced on Friday they were ending their tenancy agreement at 101 Wyandotte Street East as use of the space for its intended purposes will no longer be possible due to the introduction of new systems.
The province is introducing new rules for supervised drug consumption sites, including banning all locations within 200 metres of schools or child-care centres, as well as introducing the Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment model, or HART hub program.
McLaren says there's a mix of emotions.
"I'm supportive of any resources that are good, but the model that the province has presented ignores half a century, I'm not exaggerating, half a century of data and research on addiction, and ignores the present reality on the ground of the constant stream of overdoses, and the toxic drug crisis."
Dowie says residents have expressed concerns over the sites.
"So instead of having a revolving door where instead of treatment recovery, clients will continue to cycle through the system. We want to build a model for addictions treatment that meets addicts where they are, and put them on a path to recovery so they can get to a better place and feel good about themselves once again."
Meanwhile, McLaren says a lot of treatment options available are for those who are ready to take a step towards recovery.
"For the people that are not ready yet, that's where harm reduction models come in. And so they work together, so on the front end it keeps people alive, harm reduction strategies keep people alive long enough so that they can get help. So these HART hubs, that's great that that's supported there, but a lot of people are not going to live to get into those programs."
The MPP for Windsor-Tecumseh says Windsor Regional Hospital statistics show that emergency room visits for overdoses were not reduced when the Windsor site opened.
"They did not get reduced, in fact they increased while the safe injection site existed," says Dowie. "It did not appear to be a deterrent, or cycle people through and get to a better place."
Rielly McLaren says the province acts as though the opioid crisis doesn't exist.
"They didn't mention anything about it, I was waiting for them to go 'oh, there's an opioid crisis, there's an overdose crisis', they didn't even say a word about it. So, I would love to see and hear about that, because I haven't heard anything yet about the overdose opioid crisis, anything that they're doing to address that."
Dowie says local social work has proven to be successful.
"It comes down to what is the best way to help the most people, and expecting individuals who are in distress to go to a specific place to really take care of their addiction, and their feelings that they have to consume, is something that is sometimes a bridge too far."
Back on January 1, SafePoint services in Windsor were paused as health unit officials awaited the results of a provincial critical incident review.
The Health Unit stated on Friday that they are actively involved in the planning processes related to the local HART Hub application.