Windsor's SafePoint is 'safe,' says health unit amid provincewide review

In its first six months of operation, SafePoint — Windsor's first and only drug consumption and treatment site — has called emergency services twice, according to the health unit.  

According to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU), the first time police were called to the scene was because a substance was found nearby and law enforcement was needed to dispose of it. The second time, WECHU says, it was for an ambulance after a person overdosed on site. 

Eric Nadalin, director of WECHU's public health programs, said the person was revived and didn't want to be taken to hospital. 

Nadalin said the site has stuck to the security plan it had outlined and remains in close partnership with Windsor police. 

"We know that it has been a safe site," he said. 

"We've stayed true to the commitments to provide a secure, safe, well-lit space that is [an] addition to the neighbourhood."

The safety of drug consumption and treatment services (CTS) sites across Ontario is being called into question after a woman was shot and killed outside a site in Toronto in July. 

The provincial government announced shortly after that it would perform a critical incident review of all CTS, and that as part of this review all new CTS applications would be put on pause. 

That pause puts SafePoint's application — which would come with funding — in limbo. 

As a result, WECHU announced last week that the site would be closing at the end of the year as it couldn't continue to operate without funding. 

"Our focus right now is on supporting the clients that access SafePoint," Nadalin said. 

"We're working closely together [with our partners] to make sure that the impact on our clients who access the site and have come to rely on the site, the risk to those individuals is mitigated to whatever extent possible." 

In October, SafePoint had 258 visits — the highest since it opened at the end of April. 

In total, 182 people have used the site to date. 

The province hasn't said how long this review will last and there has been no clarity on whether SafePoint's application will be approved. 

Evidence shows CTS sites are safe, says policy analyst 

Safety and security had been a top concern for community members, according to consultations WECHU had completed before SafePoint opened. 

Some businesses close to the site say there haven't been any issues, though they'd still prefer it to be located somewhere else.

"When it opened up, we had concerns about what it was going to bring, was it going to add to the problem?" said Quality Inn Suites general manager Michelle Falconio. 

"I have to say for the time they've been opened, personally here, I've never had an issue. I drive by there every morning coming to work and going home. I've never seen anything outside of the building ... or any trouble of any kind. So what we expected might happen, for us, did not, it did not." 

The Quality Inn Suites is across the street from SafePoint, located at Goyeau Street and Wyandotte Street East. 

Antoine Greige is the owner of Antoine Greige Hair Salon, which is just down the street from SafePoint on Goyeau Street. 

"I haven't seen anything dangerous myself here, even though I'm against the safe injection site," he said. 

"My biggest fear was what's going to happen if something goes wrong outside and an innocent bystander will be the victim. And this is what happened in Toronto. But so far here, I can't say I saw anything yet [dangerous]."

Nick Boyce, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, said the evidence shows these sites are safe. 

"Overall, the evidence shows that they do not increase crime.

"Now there is a link between drug use and criminality in some sense, because we have prohibited it and we have criminalized it and we have put the market in the hands of gangs and cartels." 

Boyce said the research shows these sites help save lives, and without them, people end up using unsafely. 

Since 2018, Boyce said, there has been "very little" scaling up of CTS sites in Ontario. 

"And at the same time the supply of drugs has become incredibly toxic, even more challenging to work with and these sites have just not been able to match that capacity." 

Last year, 112 people died from an opioid overdose in Windsor-Essex, according to data from Public Health Ontario. That's an increase of 27 deaths from 2021.