VIDEO: Amid drug crisis, mayor says north treated like ‘second-class citizens’

Mayor Matthew Shoemaker released his one-year report card last week, fulfilling a campaign commitment to keep Sault Ste. Marie residents up to speed on his election promises.

One thing was noticeably absent from the report: any mention of the city’s attempt to open a supervised drug consumption site.

While running for mayor, Shoemaker said he would fight hard for a local safe consumption site as part of a larger strategy to help tackle the opioid crisis in our city. First launched in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside 20 years ago, such facilities allow addicts to use drugs under medical supervision, drastically reducing the chances of a fatal overdose. 

Although the Sault continues to work with stakeholders on the details of such a site, the Ford government recently announced a sweeping review of safe consumption sites around the province, triggered by the recent shooting death of a woman outside a Toronto facility.

In the meantime, no new approvals are being granted, including the Sault’s pending application. In Sudbury and Timmins, where supervised consumption sites already exist — but have yet to receive provincial funding — the future is even more uncertain. (Sudbury’s safe consumption site, The Spot, says it will have no choice but to close its doors at the end of the year if Ontario doesn’t fund it.)

“This creates such an injustice and a division between north and south,” Shoemaker said, during a recent interview in our SooToday studio. “You have these supervised consumption sites operating in southern Ontario that will continue to operate and provide this kind of service to folks who have addictions and mental health challenges in southern Ontario — and you will have no service like that in the north. It is unfair. It’s treating northern Ontario residents as second-class citizens.”

The mayor said he is hopeful that when the review is over, the province promptly approves the city’s application. 

“But for ideological reasons, frankly, I think that they will purposefully not be quick in making their decision,” he said. “And I think that’s going to significantly affect our ability to tackle this challenge.”

You can watch the mayor’s full interview HERE.