The first nine HART Hubs locations to receive provincial funding have been announced.
The government of Ontario announced the first nine locations for Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub facilities in a press release on Jan. 2. The locations receiving this funding are in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph, and Thunder Bay and were all previously safe injection sites that are being converted to the HART Hub model.
The province is allocating $378 million to support the creation of 19 HART Hubs across the province. The first nine announced are locations that are being converted from safe injection sites.
The proposal for a Timmins Hart Hub was submitted in October 2024.
Path 525 in Thunder Bay, which is operated by Nor'West Health Centres, is the only remaining consumption and treatment services site in northern Ontario. It is expected to be converted to the HART Hub model by March 31. Sites in Timmins and Sudbury were closed in 2024 due to a lack of provincial funding.
The proposed HART Hub in Timmins, part of the broader Wellness Centre of Excellence (WCE) initiative, is intended to be a centralized service facility for mental health and addiction treatment and transitional housing support for individuals facing homelessness. However, it won’t allow supervised consumption on site or hand out harm reduction supplies.
The Cochrane District Services Board (CDSB) purchased the former Ramada Inn at 1800 Riverside Dr. in the west end of Timmins for the proposed HART Hub.
The hotel had an $11 million price tag, which includes $10 million for the building and $1 million for chattels, which are furnishings and other items not permanently part of the building.
At a Dec. 19 meeting, CDSB's CAO Brian Marks said if the funding wasn't received in the new year, they have a deal with the lender to only cover interest payments on the former Ramada Inn for the first 12 months.
Marks emphasized at the meeting that the HART Hub would impact future budgets if provincial funding is not secured or alternative revenue plans are not successful.
In an email to TimminsToday, CDSB communications manager Kailiegh Russell said that the provincial government is still considering funding for the Timmins site.
