While the province has temporarily halted plans to open three temporary overdose prevention sites in Ontario, those spearheading a Barrie facility are being met with “radio silence.”
According to news reports, the province has frozen plans to open sites in Toronto, St. Catharines and Thunder Bay, pending a review, but the status of the Barrie file remains up in the air, where it has been for a few months.
The local application was submitted to the province April 10.
At the Gilbert Centre, which is taking the lead on Barrie’s overdose prevention site (OPS) application, harm reduction co-ordinator Matt Turner said they’re trying to find some answers.
“Today, the province hasn’t responded,” he told BarrieToday on Tuesday. “We haven’t heard from the Ministry of Health regarding our application or the status of application. So far it’s been radio silence from the Ministry of Health.”
More information is expected Tuesday afternoon, he said.
On Monday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province will make a decision on the Toronto, St. Catharines and Thunder Bay sites, as well as more permanent sites, by the end of September.
Turner told BarrieToday a few weeks ago that the delays were likely due to the changeover in provincial government following the election of Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.
“Well, Doug Ford did say during the election that he was dead against supervised consumption sites, so it wasn’t a surprise that he was reviewing the evidence,” Turner said.
But meanwhile, the problem persists.
“We’re just concerned with the delays, considering that we did have 4,000 deaths in 2017 … and 78 deaths in Simcoe-Muskoka,” Turner said.
The central-north area of Barrie had 10 times the rate of opioid overdose emergency-room visits in 2017 compared with the provincial average, according to the Gilbert Centre. This includes 34 visits among the homeless.
The northwest, northeast and south-central areas of Barrie all had significantly higher rates of opioid overdose ER visits in 2017 when compared to the province as a whole.
A provincial opioid strategy was announced in the fall of 2016, followed in August 2017 by the opening of Moss Park, an unsanctioned OPS. In December 2017, OPS’s were allowed to operate in Ontario and, a month later, the application window opened.
On Jan. 22, 2018, staff from the Gilbert Centre, the Barrie Community Health Centre, the David Busby Street Centre and the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit visited KeepSIX and Moss Park overdose prevention sites.
On March 13, the Gilbert Centre and Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) agreed to be the applicant and co-applicant for an OPS in Barrie.
That same day, the Gilbert Centre’s board of directors approved applying for an OPS and a week later, the CMHA board of directors also got on board.
The Gilbert Centre is a community-based, not-for-profit charitable organization that has been providing programs and services as the AIDS Committee of Simcoe County for close to three decades. It changed its name to the Gilbert Centre for Social and Support Services in 2015.
The Gilbert Centre offers a needle exchange, counselling services on how to reduce use as well as safer administration of drugs, and overdose prevention training.
