Thunder Bay's only safe drug consumption site to close in wake of Ontario move, raising fears of more deaths

Advocates in Thunder Bay say the Ontario government's move to close a number of safe consumption sites (SCS) will have be dangerously detrimental to people living with addictions.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced Tuesday the province is banning the sites within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres, meaning 10 locations in the province, including Path 525 in Thunder Bay, must shut down by March 31, 2025.

Path 525, which is operated by NorWest Community Health Centres (NWCHC), is on the city's south side, around the corner from Ogden Community Public School.

Opened in 2018, the service's clients can bring in drugs from the street to use in the presence of a registered nurse, who can help them if they overdose.

"A couple of times that I've been there, I've overdosed," said Vanessa Tookenay, a member of Fort William First Nation. Tookenay has has been in recovery from addiction for about 2½ years and is now a child and youth worker.

"Had I not been there, I wouldn't be alive."

The province says it's spending $378 million on 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs, and is encouraging SCS operators to apply to transition to the hub model.

"With a focus on treatment and recovery, HART Hubs will not offer 'safer' supply, supervised drug consumption or needle exchange programs," according to the government's news release Tuesday.

Supervised consumption sites receive provincial funding, with an exemption under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Last summer, Ontario launched a "critical incident review" of all safe consumption sites following a fatal shooting of a woman near one in Toronto.

Last year, Thunder Bay had the highest opioid toxicity mortality rate in the province compared to all other public health units, according to the Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC). At least 16 people died in the city in the first quarter of 2024, according to the OCC's latest data.

"These places literally keep people alive, and I just really can't get over how many people are not going to make it as a result of it closing," Tookenay said of Path 525.

NWCHC was not immediately available for comment following the province's announcement Tuesday afternoon. However, earlier in the day, it issued a drug alert warning people that a substance being sold as turquoise fentanyl was found to contain rat poison and multiple clients have been hospitalized.

Path 525 offers clients access to harm reduction supplies, a safer supply program and a drug testing machine. Harm reduction workers and nurses connect people to other community resources, including primary care, housing, mental health and addiction support. 

"There's a shower where they can clean up, they get to essentially debrief from what's going on in their lives, they get to be treated, and have a human conversation and do something that resembles a sense of normalcy," said Tookenay.