Chair of WECHU looking for answers from the province on SafePoint future

The Chair of Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is trying to answer some questions surrounding the future of Windsor's SafePoint site. 

Fabio Costante held a media conference Friday afternoon regarding operations at SafePoint following the news the province has paused approving new supervised consumption and treatment sites while a review of all 17 sites is underway. 

Ontario launched this review after a 44-year-old mother of two was killed by a stray bullet near a consumption site in Toronto's east end following a physical altercation between three men earlier this summer. 

Her death sparked outrage and a debate over supervised consumption sites.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has Health Canada approval to operate SafePoint as an urgent public health needs site but the site still needs approval from the province to officially designate it as a consumption and treatment services site.

Costante says that it's important to note that correspondence for the Windsor site has was sent before today's announcement from the province. 

He says the Health Unit board will be meeting on November 20 to discuss the budget, but if there is no word back from the provincial government it's up in the air what will happen to the site. 

Costante says the last five months have been very successful at SafePoint. 

"The site itself and the businesses in the neighbourhood around the site have not been impacted not one bit. It's been very quiet, it's been very respectful, it's been very clean. And so we have five months of good data, and we've got five months of what I would view as good success with the launch of SafePoint."

Fabio Costante, Chair of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, during a media conference regarding operations at SafePoint. October 6, 2023 (Photo Credit: Courtesy of AM800's Dustin Coffman)

The ward 2 city councillor says it's important to discuss next steps based on what the province announced Friday.

"It will have implications on the Board of Health's decision in about a month, a month and a half's time from now. So on November 20 the Board of Health will be meeting to discuss its budget. And obviously part of the budget is the provision of services at the SafePoint site."

Costante says they are hoping to continue talks with the Ministry of Health. 

"That is why we're still waiting to hear from the Ministry [of Health], and we hope to continue that dialogue with the Ministry in earnest so that we can make the best decision for the Board of Health, for our stakeholders which include our municipalities at both the City and the County, and for the patients that have been receiving care at SafePoint and all the partners that have been involved."

The site, which has been open since late April, costs about $700,000 to run per year.

The site, located at 101 Wyandotte Street East, is open seven days a week between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

SafePoint has been seeing a steady increase in usage over the last five months, where there have been 418 client visits amongst 119 unique clients up until August 31. 

-with files from AM800's Dustin Coffman