Construction of Sudbury's supervised consumption site complete

Brian Bigger, Sudbury's mayor, said he has "no doubts" the city's supervised consumption site will save lives and decrease substance abuse after years of rising deaths attributed to overdose.

The site, which would allow people to safely use drugs under supervised staff,cleareda major hurdle Friday after representatives from the federal government approved the setup.

Plans for the consumption site, in the works since May 2021, has the location inEnergy Court. It is an undeveloped swath of land in the city's downtown. In June, Sudbury city council committed $800,000 for the setup.

"I am pleased with how quickly Council was able to move this project forward," Bigger said in a press release. "In a matter of months, we selected a location, and staff worked with community partners to help ensure the site is safe and secure for clients, residents and surrounding businesses."

"I would like to thank staff for the time they've spent in preparing the site to hand off to partners, who can now take their next steps in helping to address the effects of the opioid crisis in Greater Sudbury."

Sudbury has been hard-hit by the opioid crisis. In November, the province's chief coroner saidSudbury's per capita deaths by opioid is the highest in the province, with over 50 per 100,000, with North Bay, Thunder Bay, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie close to, or over 40 deaths per 100,000.

There are still several more steps in the process before the site will be fully operational.

HeidiEisenhauer, executive director of Rseau ACCESS Network, said today's approval by the feds was an "important milestone" for the project.

"There's so many boxes we need to check as we're going through this process," Eisenhauer said. "So it'sa long awaited sigh of relief."

"There's still a few stages left to goin order for the site to be open," she added. "Right now we're waiting for that exemption to come through from the federal representatives and then we can start the process of getting ready to open."