Concern is being raised over a motion to rescind support for the location of a Consumption and Treatment Site in downtown Windsor.
Ward 2 councillor Fabio Costante says he's worried that every day that we delay the opening of a CTS site, we're delaying the opportunity to help people and the potential to save lives in our community.
Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino will introduce a notice of motion during this coming Monday's council meeting asking council to rescind support for the location at 101 Wyandotte St. E., right at the corner of Goyeau Street.
The CTS or what the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is calling the SafePoint consumption service, is expected to open at that location in March.
Agostino told AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides his biggest concern is that the location 'sucks.'
"It sucks that it's going to be at the tunnel, it sucks it's going to be next door to McDonald's, it sucks that businesses next door on Wyandotte Street that are going to be effected by this," he says. "It's the wrong location and I want us to try to do better. I am 1000% behind the need for a CTS site."
The city has launched the process of finding a location for a new Homelessness and Housing Help Hub, something Agostino believes would be a better place to host the CTS.
He calls it a fragile situation because a lot of businesses downtown still haven't recovered from COVID-19.
"The last thing we need is another deterrent to stop that. But at the same time, I do 100 per cent believe that we need at CTS site and I just want to make sure we do it right where we put it," says Agostino.
In January 2022, following a very lengthy process, council voted 6-5 in favour of supporting the downtown location for the consumption site, designed to provide a safe site to use drugs under supervision and reduce harm and overdoses.
Costante says there has been thousand of hours and hundreds of people involved in the process including, stakeholders and experts in this area.
"This process was extremely robust and then the debate at council was a very long, robust and passionate debate. At the end of the day, there's never going to be a site that everyone is going to be happy with, that is without question. But we can't continue to delay this process," he says.
Costante says there may be financial implications, something he will be questioning during the debate.
"The decision we're going to have to make on Monday is not going to be an easy decision. We're at the tail end of the process where there was hope, as early as this Spring, we would see this site open. So to come in at the tail end and unravel everything will come at a cost," he says.
Agostino believes that any contracts at the current site can be worked around.
"I think the best interest of the people who are there, the businesses that are there, the people that live there, would supercede any type of contract," he says. "Getting it right the first time is the most important goal, that's what I'm trying to do here."
Costante was recently elected chair of the health unit board of directors while Agostino, elected to city council in the October 2022 municipal vote, was recently selected to serve on the health unit board.
Following word of the notice of motion concerning the CTS, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit issued the following statement Thursday evening:
"The WECHU is aware of the notice of motion put forth regarding city council’s support of the SafePoint consumption service located at 101 Wyandotte Street East. Extensive consultation on the site spanned over four years and involved over 3000 interactions with neighborhood residents, businesses, and stakeholders, including a series of Town Hall meetings which took place this week. We welcome members of our community as well as our media partners to review details of these consultations at www.wecoss.ca/cts. We look forward to continuing the education process for our elected officials and members of the public related to this important service."
The site still needs final approval from Health Canada and the Ontario government.
Windsor city council meets at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30.