THUNDER BAY — Tasha Pelletier, a harm reduction outreach worker with NorWest Community Health Centre, said the closure of the safe consumption site will result in more overdoses and more deaths in the community.
“I think we are going to see our community struggling a lot more than we have seen and we are going to see a lot more death,” she said.
“We are going to see a lot more people using out in the open. Get ready because it’s coming once these sites are closed.”
Path 525, the only safe consumption site in Thunder Bay and all of Northern Ontario, is among 10 sites across the province that will be forced to close by March 2025 following changes announced by the provincial government on Wednesday.
The changes include banning safe consumption sites from operating within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres. Path 525, located within the NorWest Community Health Centres building on Simpson Street, is within 200 metres of Ogden Elementary School.
Path 525 opened in 2018 and provides drug users a safe space to use illicit drugs under the supervision of a health-care professional. The site also provides drug testing, needle exchange, and harm reduction services.
“We know our Path 525 site has been doing incredible work,” said Juanita Lawson, chief executive officer of NorWest Community Health Centres.
“I would say we were shocked to see our name listed. There has been a lot of comments made with regard to consumption and treatment services being places that are not what our provincial government wants to see with regard to services.”
According to Lawson, there is some legislation that is going to be introduced that will not allow NorWest, with the exemption it currently has for a specific site and location, to move Path 525 to a new location.
NorWest will receive an application next week to apply for the new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment or HART hub model announced by the province this week.
The HART Hub model is meant to connect people with mental health services, primary care, and other health-care supports, but does not provide safe consumption or safe supply services.
“We have been advised that as a consumption and treatment service that has been closed, we will have an opportunity to apply and it will be a competitive process,” Lawson said.
NorWest did receive funding from the federal government through the Substance Use Addiction Program for a Safer Supply program, which provides prescribed medications as a safe alternative to illicit drugs.
A proposal by NorWest was submitted seeking funding for five more years, but according to Lawson, NorWest, along with many other community health centres operating safe consumption sites in the province, did not receive additional funding.
There are also concerns regarding whether needles can be exchanged to people using substances.
“For us that is a gold standard in terms of disease prevention,” Lawson said. “We are concerned about how people will have the services and supports they need.”
Lawson added she understands concerns regarding safety and the proximity to schools, but she is very concerned about the impact the closure will have on people struggling with substance abuse issues.
“With the toxic drug supply, closing safe consumption services will not change the fact that people are still struggling with trauma, with mental health, with substance abuse. It is very concerning for us about what this will mean for individuals and the death toll we will see as a result,” she said.
“The reality is, our programs reduce overdose, and that means there is a reduction in emergency medical services, a reduction in having to go to the emergency department, a reduction in all of these things keeping people safe and alive.”
Since 2019, Path 525 has reversed 424 overdoses. In July 2024 alone, Path 525 had 1,266 visits with 318 individuals accessing the service for consumption of substances. There were also 19 new clients, 135 clients were provided primary health care, and staff completed 55 drug checking test with only 38 per cent of substances coming back as expected.
Pelletier, who has lived experience with Path 525 as an addict in recovery, said services like safe consumption sites save lives and place people on a path toward recovery.
“We want to keep people alive long enough to get to that point. That’s what safe injection sites allow,” she said. “It is extremely important. We are keeping people alive, we are keeping people engaged. A lot of our clients don’t have anyone else. When they come in here their lives are saved, they feel like they mean something.”
And some people have nowhere else to turn to when struggling with addiction, which is why Pelletier said many clients were very emotional when they learned of Path 525’s upcoming closure.
“A lot of our clients are really sad and some of them were crying today when they found out we were shutting down,” she said. “It just breaks my heart because we are all they have for a lot of them.”
Pelletier said she does not know why there are negative perceptions of these services in the community. She believes it is a health-care issue.
“It’s not a social issue. It’s 100 per cent a health-care issue. It’s a disease. It’s not a moral deficiency,” she said.
“You don’t know the life that they come from. You just see what you want to see. You don’t know their story, what they’ve been through. People just judge a book by its cover instead of sitting down with people that struggle with mental health and addictions to be where they are today. They don’t want to be that. None of us want to be that way.”
Mayor Ken Boshcoff said he understands Path 525 has had success in the community but added the province is in charge of health care.
“I don’t know if it will have a huge impact,” he said of the Path 525 closure. “I think our issue is we try to save as many people as we can. There are numerous organizations out there doing their part. So I am hoping the slack can be picked up by some of those other organizations.”
But Pelletier believes the closure of Path 525 will have a devastating impact on the community and result in many more people struggling and even dying because they won’t have access to the services that can help save their lives.
“It’s really sad, because instead of seeing needles on the way to schools we are going to start seeing dead bodies,” she said. “I think that is a real thing here. We are going to see a lot more overdoses and death and a lot more crime and violence.”