Hamilton’s board of health has given the green light to a community organization’s application to launch a second safe injection site in the city, pending approval from Ontario’s Ministry of Health.
The supervised consumption and treatment service (CTS) site, to be operated by the AIDS Network, could be located at 746 Barton St. E.
It comes the same day a staff report revealed opioid-related overdoses and deaths in Hamilton have increased more than 200 per cent over the last five years.
The Hamilton opioid death rate is currently 45 per cent greater than Ontario’s average.
During the first 10 months of last year alone, there were 139 confirmed or probable opioid-related deaths in the city.
However, the concept of another CTS site is already facing opposition with close to 1,200 residents having signed a petition opposing the location, citing debris, an over-concentration of services and proximity to an elementary school.
Ward 3 Coun. Nirnder Nann, who’s backing the proposal, characterized the city’s response to “people dying in the hundreds” as “not satisfactory” seemingly pitting “one group of residents against another group.”
“It’s not to be parochial about protecting certain interests over other interests,” Nann said.
“My job at this board of health table is to make decisions that are going to necessarily move the needle as it relates to population health outcomes that we are contending with.”
Hamilton already has one approved CTS site, operated by Hamilton Urban Core Community Health, temporarily located at 70 James St., soon to be re-located to 430 Cannon St. E., upon completion of a new building.
On Tuesday, public health proposed renewal of its local opioid response plan incorporating leadership from health and social service agencies across the city to develop and implement a “comprehensive and integrated plan.”
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Hamilton’s current drug strategy was enacted in 2017 and led to hospital partners providing access to treatment services as well as safe consumption sites at Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre and Carole Anne’s Place.
Public health has put mental health and addictions as a departmental priority in 2023 after data revealed paramedics responded to 814 incidents related to suspected opioid overdoses in 2022, almost double the 430 seen in 2017.
Hamilton’s medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson told councillors that at present there’s no system manager for CTS sites in the city and that approvals are essentially in the hands of the provincial and federal governments.
“There’s no framework in place at the current time that dictates how many are needed per 100,000 population or per level of use,” Richardson explained.
“It essentially has been different areas across the country moving forward as they’re able to in putting supervised CTS into place with varying partners that are willing to look at them.”
Talk around implementing opioid state of emergency delayed
The prospect of declaring an opioid emergency in Hamilton has been delayed until a future meeting.
The possibility was suggested in mid-January by Stoney Creek Coun. Brad Clark and revisited Monday as a means of opening up additional local and provincial funding to help the city respond to the current predicament.
Public health is proposing to do so through a set of consultations with health and social service agencies over four months culminating with an action plan that will be presented to a board of health meeting in late spring.
Hamilton has been in an opioid crisis since a November 2019 declaration but not yet in an emergency declaration which could open up additional local and provincial funding.
Richardson told councillors last month that declaring a state of emergency was for acute problems, such as a large fire or accident, and that further queries would have to be made to see what actions and funding would come with the move.
Clark’s pitch in January asked what thresholds of opioid deaths and overdoses would prospectively launch an “effective response” and open up city “funding resources.”
An information report presented to councillors on Monday said city health officials hope to develop a plan through a series of “facilitated sessions” with results presented at a June 2023 board of health meeting.
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