Sault MPP Ross Romano says the Ministry of Health is close to announcing final funding for the project. But protesters say shovels need to be driven into the ground now as people die from substance use on a weekly basis.
Members of Save Our Young Adults (SOYA) gathered in front of the future home of Sault Ste. Marie’s housing withdrawal management site on Old Garden River Road to protest what they say is a lack of transparency and action by the provincial government.
Although $ 343,000 in operational funding for the project was announced in May last year, the capital funding that will cover the cost of building the 20-bed facility has not yet been finalized nearly a year later.
“We are still traveling to Lake Elliott. We don’t have enough beds, “said SOYA founder Connie Raynor-Elliott. “This facility won’t be big enough, but you know what?” Let’s open it.
“We don’t have safe beds, we don’t have transitional beds. You go to the withdrawal office, you’re there for seven days, and then they take you back to the streets. “
Sault Ste. Marie MPP Ross Romano told SooToday earlier this week that the Ministry of Health is close to announcing the final funding of the project. Sault Area Hospital confirmed that the public procurement process for the project ended on March 25, but details have been embargoed by the Ministry of Health.
For Paula Kehoe, a board member of SOYA, which successfully overcame its own long-standing drug addiction with the help of the Ontario Addiction Centers (OATC), the shovels had to be in the ground “yesterday” for the 145 Old Garden Download Control Facility. River Road.
“We were promised this and the shovels had to be in the ground. It had to start now, “she told SooToday. “This is preventing people from starting rehabilitation. This is the first step and this is an important first step. We need people who want to come and start detoxification and go to rehab. “
Keho said people “die every week” in South due to substance use in the past year.
“It’s so sad that these things are happening without the services here at Sault Ste. “If Marie supports someone, these people don’t even have a chance to fight,” she said.
Raynor-Elliott said SOYA would continue to push for the project to begin, even if it meant picketing outside Romano’s office.
“I’m disappointed, I’m sick and tired,” she said. “You know what? I’m going to keep doing this and SOYA will keep doing this and we’re not going to stop until this building is up and running.”
Sault Area Hospital relocated its retirement management program to its Great Northern Road facility in March 2020 after a fire in the facility forced the closure of the Queen Street East Detox Center.
– with files from Kenneth Armstrong
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