Sudbury council favours Energy Court land for supervised consumption site

Sudbury city council has selected property off Energy Court in the city's downtown as the site for a temporary supervised consumption site which the city hopes to establish this year.

At a meeting Tuesday evening, councillors voted unanimously to direct staff to move ahead with establishing a temporary supervised consumption site, and committed up to $800,000 for setup costs.

City staff are working with the city's community drug strategy, which includes representatives from public health, city police, the Réseau Access Network, and other groups. 

The drug strategy has prepared an application to send to the federal government to set up an "urgent needs" site — a temporary location where people can safely use drugs, while the city continues to work toward establishing a permanent site. 

Now that city council has approved a location, the city needs to find a way to fund the operation of the site, before the application can be submitted to the federal government. 

Debate over best location

At Tuesday's meeting, councillors reviewed a report from city staff, which identified two suitable locations for a safe drug use site. The other option was at the east end of the CP rail parking lot on Elgin Street, near the Bridge of Nations.

The report notes that the Elgin Street site was preferred by members of the community drug strategy, but "staff believe the Energy Court site should be the preferred location. It satisfies the Ministry's criteria and would not impact the parking supply." 

During the meeting, Coun. Robert Kirwan spoke in favour of the Elgin Street location, saying the site should be located as close as possible to existing services, such as the Samaritan centre. 

"How many parking spaces is the life of one person worth?" Kirwan said. 

While the original motion left the location selection up to city staff, Kirwan proposed an amendment to specify the Elgin Street location. That motion was defeated 11 to two. Coun. Geoff McCausland subsequently put forward an amendment to specify the Energy Court location. That amendment passed, with Kirwan and Coun. Bill Leduc opposed. 

McCausland said the Energy Court location, which is south-east of the intersection of Elm and Lorne Streets, is conveniently located near services including the N'Swakamok Native Friendship Centre and the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth. He also noted that recent encampments have been set up on that piece of land. 

"This is an established area … it's been used by the more vulnerable in our community for decades," McCausland said.  

McCausland also noted that the vacant land off Energy Court would offer the opportunity to develop green space, something that was also noted in the report from staff. 

Operational funding needed

According to the staff report, Public Health Sudbury and Districts has an application completed, and ready to be submitted to the federal government for an urgent needs designation. But before that can happen, funding needs to be secured.

The federal and provincial governments do not provide funding for these temporary sites. 

"I guess if it wasn't coming through municipal funds, then we'd have to reach out to community to see what other sources of funding is available. But mostly in other jurisdictions the funding comes through provincial and federal funding, and in some cases municipal," said Steve Jacques, the city's general manager of community development. 

Mayor Brian Bigger said city staff will evaluate operational costs, and bring information back to council at an upcoming meeting. He said he's hopeful the city will be able to find the necessary resources — noting that council has "shown the willingness to approve funding" for other important projects, including transitional housing. 

"Of course my hope is that as soon as we identify the operational needs as well as the site and the facility needs, that that translates into an application for a permanent site," Bigger said.