“His mom is a nurse. He was a good kid who could not gain access to the programs and services to help him, and he’s not with us anymore,” she said.
“And that happens to many, many families.”
Gélinas shared her story at pre-provincial budget consultations in Sudbury, Ont. on Tuesday.
Réseau ACCESS Network, which operates the city’s supervised intake site, is one of 19 organizations that implemented investments as a component of the provincial government’s upcoming budget.
By the end of 2023, the city’s transitional investment dried up, and the organization relied on donations from the industry and anonymous donors to keep operating.
Amber Fritz, director of the supervised intake site, told the province’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs that she has been waiting more than two years to react to her request for investment from the province.
Fritz said $1. 4 million from the province will fund next year.
“Ours is about to close,” he said.
“We have been operating since September 28, 2022. Every month we are busier. If you look at the month of January through yesterday, we’ve had 376 drinks and 302 visits in 29 days. “
Fritz said that in 2022, another 112 people died from opioid overdoses in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts.
She said those deaths are preventable, though, if people can use drugs in a safe space under the supervision of health-care professionals.
Fritz said 24 overdoses have been reversed so far, without the need for emergency medical services intervention.
“It’s a position of dignity. It’s a position where other people don’t have to do drugs in dumpsters and in alleys in the freezing cold,” he said.
“We know other people are going to do drugs anyway. People have done it and they will. So why not help other people get the dignity they deserve?”
Sudbury, Better Beginnings Better Futures, has also called for more investment from the province in the upcoming budget.
The organization manages student nutrition systems in 90 of the Sudbury-Manitoulin district.
“Many systems would not possibly provide food to their students for the entire school year,” said Angele Young, Sudbury-Manitoulin’s regional director of student nutrition.
Young said the systems feed 19,000 young people in the region each day and demand has doubled since 2019.
“Lately we serve only 3 million meals a year,” he said.
Young said meal prices hover around 40 cents, but that’s because schools are “increasing their budgets” and cutting back on food quality or the number of meals.
“We know that a breakfast program, made up of three food groups, costs $2. 25 [per meal],” he said.
For the first time in his 25-year career, Young said he’s already being told they’ve run out of money for their nutrition programs.
Young said Better Beginnings Better Futures receives $750,000 annually from the province to cover its nutrition programs. About $250,000 covers administration, staffing and transportation, and $500,000 is for food.
He said another $500,000 a year would allow them to fulfill their desires for attractive schools.
The province held consultations across Ontario ahead of the 2024 budget.
Other organizations participating in Tuesday’s consultations included the City of Greater Sudbury, Science North, the YMCA of Northeastern Ontario and Capreol’s nurse-practitioner-led clinic.
Journalist/Digital Editor
Jonathan Migneault is a CBC virtual reporter/editor founded in Sudbury. You are looking for interesting stories about Northeastern Ontario. Submit your article concepts to jonathan. migneault@cbc. ca.
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