Joint statement on funding threat to Somerset West CHC

This afternoon, we learned that the provincial government is poised to ban the Supervised Consumption Site currently operated by the Somerset West Community Health Centre.

While details will take a while to digest, it is apparent that the Ford government is preparing to remove funding from sites across the province deemed to be in what they have determined as too close proximity to sensitive locations such as daycares and schools.

We unequivocally oppose banning a critical health service at SWCHC’s Eccles site that saves hundreds of lives a year and that protects communities from the harms of unsupervised drug use.

Supervised Consumption Sites are a critical approach to community well-being, providing facilities for the use of drugs that are supervised. The alternative to these sites is to move the use of drugs into unsupervised community settings. This will mean more overdoses and more deaths.

We expect that if SWCHC loses funding that we will see profound harm, both to people who use drugs and in the broader community.

This threat to funding is not based in data or evidence. We recognize that some community members are uncomfortable with Supervised Consumption Sites in their neighbourhood and that the sites must be well-managed.

We further recognize the need, in addition to Supervised Consumption Sites, for greater investment in treatment and mental health care. However, we cannot accept the loss of these services in our community, nor the impacts that this will predictably have on community safety.

Simply put: people cannot recover from addiction if they are dead. We have already lost too many community members to overdoses. We need a “both/and” approach and not “either/or.”

As the councillors for the two wards served by the Supervised Consumption Site at SWCHC, we demand that the Ford government maintain its funding and allow it to continue to operate.

Harm reduction saves lives.