Unclear when homelessness and addiction hubs will open in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie

When Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones announced 18 new Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs on the eve of the provincial election, she said the goal was to have them be operational by April 1. 

As that date nears, the agencies set to run two of the new HART hubs in northeastern Ontario say they are still waiting on the province to confirm funding and operational details. 

"We're still waiting for all the final documents from the province so that we can really move forward," said Tyler Campbell, director of children and social services for the City of Greater Sudbury. 

The municipality has been running a HART-like pilot project with 13 of the 300 or so individuals on its by-name list as it waits for provincial funding.

A by-name list refers to people who are known to be experiencing homelessness in the community.

These 13 people are currently being housed in a motel, but could move in the new Lorraine St. transitional project, where the HART hub is set to open, in the coming weeks. 

That building has enough room for 40 people, but Campbell said the city needs all the HART hub details before it can operate at full capacity.

"It also depends how quickly [Health Sciences North] can ramp up their staffing," said Campbell.

As for the HART hub set to open in Sault Ste. Marie, the Canadian Mental Health Association Algoma said it is also waiting for a formal funding letter from Ontario Health. 

CEO Lisa Case told CBC they're continuing to "engage with core partners to provide updates and keep the implementation plan for HART Hub moving forward." 

Asked for an update on the opening of the hubs, Hannah Jensen, spokesperson for the health minister, told CBC there are different timelines depending on whether the hub is opening in a facility that offered supervised drug consumption services before Ontario passed new laws.

Those rules banned the facilities located within 200 metres of schools and daycares, and prevent new ones from opening.

"Nine transitioning HART hubs are opening on April 1, as planned, ensuring there is no gap in mental health support when drug injection sites close on March 31," writes Jensen in an email. 

She added the government hopes to open the remaining HART hubs, including those in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, "as soon as possible." 

Opioid-related deaths rose in Sudbury after end of supervised consumption

April 1 will mark one year since supervised consumption services in Sudbury shut down while waiting on provincial funding. 

"The early data following the closure of the supervised consumption site suggested an increase in the number of opioid related deaths," said Rachelle Roy, a nurse with Public Health Sudbury and Districts. 

She added, however, that more recent data is similar to the period that preceded the closure of the service, but that mortality rates won't capture the full effectiveness of the service in preventing opioid-related deaths. 

"This data includes our entire service area," she said. 

"The impact of a supervised consumption site is primarily within a 1km radius of its location, so it's not expected to alter a city wide or district wide mortality statistics."

The most recent preliminary data from the Office of the Chief Coroner's office suggests that, in most of 2024, the opioid mortality rates across the province decreased by 20 per cent compared to 2021 levels. 

This decrease has not been felt throughout the north, which remains the region most affected by the opioid crisis. 

For example, mortality rates in 2024 were three times higher than the provincial average in the Porcupine Health Unit area, which includes Timmins, a city that wasn't chosen by the province for a HART hub.