The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has announced a lease agreement has been reached for a safe consumption site in Windsor.
Health unit officials announced Monday that a lease agreement has been reached for the Consumption and Treatment Services site at 101 Wyandotte St. E., right near Goyeau Street.
The location was one of two sites examined during a community consultation process.
Nicole Dupuis, Chief Executive Officer at the health unit, says the next step is an application for an urgent public health needs site, along with a full application to Health Canada and Province of Ontario for the permanent site.
An urgent public health needs site application allows for a time-limited exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, allowing the site to open sooner and on a smaller scale.
Dupuis says they will be immediately submitting the application to allow for quicker approvoal and actually open the doors sooner while we wait for the lengthier application," she says.
Windsor City Council voted in January to approve a location at 628 Goyeau St., but Dupuis says they just couldn't agree to terms on a lease agreement for the site, so they moved on to the location at 101 Wyandotte St. E.
She says they will require an updated resolution from Council for the 101 Wyandotte location as part of the full application process.
"That, we believe, should be a formality given they are side by side. The consoltation is identical and really the plan, the security plan, everything is the same," says Dupuis. "But it will require an update resolution specific to the 101 Wyandotte site."
Dupuis says they hope to take over the site in May and start making the adjustments they need to make it ready.
She indicated the site meets the need from a space perspective but it will need to be modified.