A notice of motion at Windsor City Council today will focus on the new location for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's Consumption and Treatment Services site at 101 Wyandotte St. E., right near Goyeau Street.
Councillor Rino Bortolin's motion will ask that the City of Windsor Council support the WECHU’s applications to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Health Canada to operate the site.
Bortolin says council discussed and debated the original location back in January, and both locations were covered in the public consultation so there's no need to start the process over.
"But we are going back to council because that motion in January was tied to the address of 628 Goyeau Street, so this one on Monday is basically the same motion but looking for approval at 101 Wyandotte."
He says the locations are very close to one another, which is why when they did the public consultation both were examined.
"And they both scored very high. The 628 location I think was just a matter of square footage cost at the time, and that's why we chose the Goyeau Street location at the time. But now since we weren't able to secure a lease there, we've secured a lease at 101 Wyandotte and we'll be moving ahead with that location," he said.
The meeting in January over the location was a lengthy and spirited debate, but Bortolin is not expecting this motion to create the same kind of discussion.
"I don't think it's going to be a long, drawn out debate. I think the conversation we had in January was robust enough, we don't need to rehash it all. I think Nicole Dupuis from the Health Unit will probably come to explain the why, and then I expect it to go through pretty swiftly without much discussion because we had the discussion back in January."
The application for a CTS to the provincial government requires the WECHU to obtain and submit local municipal council support.
Bortolin says the application has been a work in progress, but with approval from the municipal government it will go through.
The process will still take some time however, and to bridge the gap they're also looking to apply for a temporary CTS in the same location.
If they get approval quicker for the temporary one, they'll be able to open right away until they get approval for the long term funding from the federal government.