The CEO of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit feels 'comfortable' that provincial funding for a harm reduction site in downtown Windsor will be approved by this summer.
Dr. Ken Blanchette said during Thursday's health unit board meeting that they don't have a committed time from the province as to when the final application will be completed by, but they've been able to go by what the average has been across the province.
The application and funding request for the SafePoint location needs provincial government approval, something expected by mid-summer, based on the health unit being eight months into the typically year long process.
Health Canada is tentatively scheduled to perform a virtual on-site inspection of the SafePoint location in March, part of the federal approval process.
Blanchette said the federal application could be approved within 30 days following the inspection, possibly sooner.
If federal approval is granted, the health unit hopes to open SafePoint and pay for it with funding in its operating budget, potential grants, and philanthropic means until provincial funding is approved.
The funding plan is being questioned by Windsor city council. The health unit will appear before the Feb. 27 meeting of council to address concerns that the city would be forced to pay the cost of operating the site, if provincial funding is not approved.
The City of Windsor and the County of Essex both provide funding to the health unit's operating budget.
Blanchette said the high priority community funding he's been able to obtain should cover any of the costs for the operational piece following federal approval.
"Plus we front loaded a lot of the supplies for the year in that funding. Part of our budget that we have approved accounted for the gap between opening then, and the expected provincial approvals and timelines of mid-summer of this year, from which then the provincial funding takes over," he says.
Blanchette told the board that the only expectations for the City of Windsor and County of Essex beyond the operating budget, which goes until August, would be $30,000 a piece if provincial funding is not approved by mid-summer.
"If we were to operate at the current hours that we were looking at the federal site. Again, one of the other resolutions that we talked about on Feb. 3 was my continuous efforts to look for additional funding, whether it be the high priority community funding or philanthropic donations to mitigate the risk and cost to municipalities," he says.
Following questions about the process and potential funding issues, Essex County warden Hilda MacDonald said she has a level of confidence that the expectation isn't extremely high that the County or City would be required to make up any funds.
Acting medical officer of health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai told Thursday's board meeting that an estimated 80 people die of opioid use disorder, many of those people in the prime of their lives.
He says 80 lives is one or two people dying a week, calling it a "staggering number we have to deal with."
The consumption and treatment site is to be located at 101 Wyandotte St. E., right near Goyeau Street.