A group of demonstrators calling for provincial action to keep the local safe consumption site's doors open were met with opposition and support.
About a dozen people gathered outside of Timmins MPP George Pirie's office today (March 8) to demand action to keep Safe Health Site Timmins (SHST) open past March 31, when its funding runs out.
“Everyone in our community has been touched by addiction or mental health and I hope that we can just treat people with humanity and dignity,” said Christianne Blain, who attended as a concerned local resident. She's also worked casually at SHST as a harm reduction worker since it opened in July 2022.
SEE: Timmins safe consumption site set to close at end of March
The demonstration is a follow-up to Canadian Drug Policy Coalition's (CDPC) open letter to Ontario's Minister of Health Sylvia Jones and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo. It has eight calls to action, including emergency funding for safe consumption sites that have applied for provincial cash and are going to close or have closed due to lack of funds.
During the half-hour protest, some vehicles honked in support or stopped for more information.
Not everyone was supportive, though.
One man driving out of the Wendy's parking lot, which is next to Pirie's constituency office, rolled down his windows and yelled, "Let them die" in response to the sign, "They talk, we die."
“As you see, there’s a lot of people in the community that would like to let people die instead of give them the opportunity to make positive changes in their lives,” Blain said.
SHST is a place for people to use previously obtained drugs in the presence of trained medical staff and connect to services.
It was funded by the City of Timmins from July 2022 to Dec. 31, 2023. Timmins and District Hospital, which also operates the facility, provided funding from Jan. 1., 2024, to March 31.
In the first three quarters of 2023, the Ontario coroner's data shows Timmins had the fifth-highest mortality rate in the province with 16 opioid toxicity deaths, or 50.7 deaths per 100,000 people. This number is for Timmins specifically and not the entire Porcupine Health Unit area, which saw a total of 23 deaths during the first three quarters. The provincial rate was 17.5 deaths per 100,000 population — or a total of 1,947 opioid toxicity deaths.
If SHST closes at the end of the month, Blain and Jason Sereda share the same concern: People will die at a higher rate.
“We’ve seen the impact that the toxic drug supply has made in our community, not just in Timmins, but all over Ontario and Canada. We have high rates of fatalities in our community in the north and we need to keep the safe injection site open so that we save more lives," said Blain.
"There’s been no lives lost at the supervised consumption site. There’s been 131 overdoses that required naloxone and those could have been lives lost."
The centre also connects people to other services, such as medical care, addiction services and treatment, as well as harm reduction supplies.
RELATED: Timmins Police exploring handing out naloxone kits
"The journey to recovery looks really different for every single person in a community and there’s a spectrum that we think about when we think about addiction services. So maybe people want to go to a residential treatment facility and maybe we want to decrease the instances of HIV and Hepatitis C," said Blain.
"Those are all quality of life and everyone deserves to have that quality of life no matter what their role in the community is and we can’t do that without a treatment and consumption site in Timmins. If (the closure) happens, we’re going to see a lot more instances of open drug use in the community, people using on the streets and certainly that’s a community health and well-being issue.”
Similar protests were also held today in Sudbury and Windsor, where other safe consumption sites could also close this month.
“It’s not only to raise awareness, we’re giving George Pirie a direct ask — saying … to follow up on his commitments, the things that he ran on when he was elected to be MPP for Timmins and make sure that the Safe Health Site Timmins stays open and that community members don’t die. Because that is what will happen if it closes, people will die," said Sereda.
Last year, SHST received approval for a permanent facility from Health Canada, which allowed it to apply to the province for funding.
Right after receiving the federal nod, Ontario paused all new funding applications for safe consumption sites to allow for a review of the facilities after a woman was hit by a stray bullet and killed outside of a Toronto site. That review has not been completed yet.
The protesters were told that Pirie was unavailable to talk. They submitted a letter to his executive assistant instead. The MPP is in town today and Pirie attended a ribbon cutting around the same time as the protest.
TimminsToday reached out to talk to Pirie and was told that he's not available to comment about Safe Health Site Timmins. Instead, Pirie's office sent a statement from the Ministry of Health noting the ongoing review of the sites. It also included a list of addiction treatment service projects the province has given money to since 2019.
As mayor, Pirie helped get SHST up and running.
In 2021, he led the push to back the site financially for its first year. For that initial support, the city used its reimbursement from the federal government for hosting evacuations.
Since being elected as the Timmins MPP, he has denied interview requests about SHST.
Sereda said people wanting to support SHST should contact Pirie and the provincial government.
“Demand that they fund these sites across our province. Demand that they immediately approve the applications. Demand that they immediately take this crisis seriously and work towards preventing deaths in our province,” he said.
