Supervised consumption site in Sudbury, Ont. losing staff as future funding is uncertain

The supervised consumption site in Sudbury, Ont. could close before the end of the year without funding from the province, says its executive director.

Funding from the City of Greater Sudbury has kept The Spot, open pending a funding arrangement with the province, but that municipal funding is due to run out on Dec. 31st.

Heidi Eisenhauer, executive director of Réseau ACCESS Network, which manages the supervised consumption site, said they are starting to lose staff as its future remains uncertain.

"As soon as we gave notice that we lost two staff, two essential staff for us that we can't replace without being able to offer contracts that go beyond December 31," Eisenhauer said.

"We lost a nurse and we lost a social worker."

Without a promise of provincial funding, Eisenhauer said more staff could leave for better job security. If too many quit, the centre would have to shut down before its funding runs out.

Last week Ontario's associate minister for mental health said the province has paused approving new supervised consumption sites while a review of all current sites is underway.

The province launched a "critical incident review" after a 44-year-old woman was killed by a stray bullet outside a consumption site in Toronto.

"Quite frankly, it's a lie that they have to stop because of what happened in southern Ontario," Sudbury MPP Jamie West said during a press conference on Tuesday, urging the province to fund the site in Sudbury, and another supervised consumption site in Timmins.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas said people will die if the site closes.

She said in the last year staff at the Sudbury site saved 17 people who would have died of overdoses without their intervention.

Eisenhauer said more than 300 people have visited the site since it opened late last year.

Data from Ontario's coroner's office found that 112 people in Sudbury-Manitoulin died of opioid overdoses in 2022. That rate is three times the provincial average.

Jason Julien, a harm reduction outreach worker said if it loses its funding it will leave a lot of people with no other options.

"Where are they gonna go?" he said. "How many more deaths are we gonna face?"

He said every week, someone he knows dies of an overdose.