Officials plead with province to provide timeline for SafePoint decision

Five months after SafePointopened, howthe supervised consumption and treatment site (CTS)will be funded in the future is up in the airafterthe province saidit's hittingpause on reviewing new siteapplications.

In August, the Ministry of Health saidall of the province's CTSsites would face a review after a fatal shooting near a site in Toronto.

"The unfortunate incident in Toronto has caused a pause for the province, but we still need to know...where we're at and more specifically, how long this review is going to take," Fabio Costante, chair of the Board of Health for Windsor-Essex, said at a press conference on Friday afternoon.

The Windsor CTS site, which has been open since late April, costs about$700,000 to run per year.

The site is primarily funded through the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's (WECHU)budget. WECHU expected to temporarily cover the costs while it awaited word on the statusof its application to the provincial government that was sent more than a year ago.

The boardwrote to the minister of healththis week asking for a timeline on that application, Costante said.

Costantesaid the board needs answers because itwill be discussing its budget and how to pay for the site going forward next month.

Without answers, Costante says all options on are on the table.

"If we don't get any certainty from the ministry, the board of health is going have to make a decision on Nov. 20 in light of that," he said. "And I can only say to you that the board of health will make a responsible decision for our community, for our stakeholders."

The push to open a CTS in Windsor dates back about seven years, amid a surge in opioid overdoses and deaths.

SafePointinitially opened with federal approval as what's called an "urgent public health needs site." In addition to providing a supervised space for people to use drugs, it also provides othersupports including connections to addictions services.

Costante says it has been a success, with month-over-month increases in usership.

SafePoint has seen600 total users since opening, and 149 or so diverted to other social services.

Last year, 105 people died of opioid overdoses in Windsor-Essex and five additional deaths are still waiting confirmation, according to provincial data. That's an increase of at least 20 deaths from 2021.