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- www.guelphtoday.com Guelph resident ‘terrified’ of looming CTS site closure
Province announced last week nine provincially funded consumption sites and one self-funded site will have to stop providing safe consumption, safe supply and needle exchange services by the end of March
Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240827203406/https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/guelph-resident-terrified-of-looming-cts-site-closure-9402009
Guelph resident ‘terrified’ of looming CTS site closure
Province announced last week nine provincially funded consumption sites and one self-funded site will have to stop providing safe consumption, safe supply and needle exchange services by the end of March
Guelph resident Aaron Samuel is ‘terrified’ of what his future holds after the province announced last week it would be shuttering most safe consumption sites around Ontario, including Guelph’s.
Samuel, 34, has been using the safe supply program since just after it launched in 2019.
“My fear is going back to the street, because I don’t want to anymore. I’ve taken myself out of that environment,” he said.
Before the program, he overdosed again and again. His relationship with his parents was “horrific,” his mental health atrocious. Every moment revolved around getting a fix. It’s not something he wants to return to.
But it might be, if he doesn’t figure something out before the program ends in March.
His decade-long addiction to opiates started when he was 18 and given a Percocet prescription.
As life unfolded, and Percocet became difficult to access, this eventually turned into a reliance on “the stronger stuff.”
“My tolerance kept going higher and higher.
“I feel like if I could (have just gone) somewhere to get exactly what I wanted, it wouldn’t have progressed as fast as it did,” he said.
He would sometimes shoplift, although mostly play guitar or panhandle to make enough money to buy drugs.
“I had no friends. All my old friends, I basically stopped talking to them. I didn’t want them to think I was a bad person.”
All that changed when he started the safe supply program.
He had tried numerous times to get clean, using methadone, detoxing, but nothing stuck.
Methadone helped, but he feels there was a lack of wraparound services to continue support.
Trying to get into rehab for long-term recovery is challenging. After detoxing, he was told it was an eight month wait, and to call every month to hold his position there. But it’s easy for the cycle to start back up in the interim.
Eventually he landed in a treatment facility in Ottawa, getting clean after a few months.
“I went to a completely new city; I didn’t know anyone, so I had no connections,” he said. “And then my dad died, so I came back to Guelph to help my mom and the cycle started again.”
He overdosed five times before landing in the program, where he said a nurse will ask what you use, how much you use, what your risk factors are, and go from there. The goal is to find the right amount of safe supply to avoid withdrawal symptoms and keep you stable.
He injects Dilaudid – a synthetic opioid called hydromorphone – seven times a day. The amount he gets is controlled, and is generally safer than street opioids because he knows the amount and its contents.
For Samuel, the medication gets dropped off every morning, “and you can go about your day,” he said.
Though he injects several times a day, besides a couple track marks, there are no obvious signs of his drug use. In fact, besides a spike-laden punk vest with a patch depicting a swastika thrown in the trash, there is nothing visibly differentiating him from anyone else, and you would probably never know unless he told you.
“When I tell people that, (they say) you don’t look like a junkie. Because other people have gaping sores and all these very serious health issues,” he said. But those issues often stem from “the unclean additives” in the drugs, whereas the pharmaceuticals accessed through safe supply are pure and by definition, safer.
Since starting the program, he’s repaired his relationship and trust with his mom, has maintained relationships, has joined a band and can keep a schedule.
“Before, I’d wake up, I’d be sick. I’d have to panhandle for five or six hours to get money to buy.”
By then it would be nighttime, he’d get high and start the process all over again.
“Now I wake up, I medicate, and I have the ability to do anything I want to do.”
He also gets Vyvanse – like Ritalin for ADHD – which he can’t get elsewhere due to his history of substance abuse.
“That’s the main benefit of the program – I’m properly medicated.”
But the province announced last week that nine provincially funded consumption sites and one self-funded site will have to stop providing safe consumption, safe supply and needle exchange services by the end of March.
The Guelph Community Health Centre’s Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site at 176 Wyndham St. is one of those affected because it is within 200 metres of a daycare or school.
A spokesperson for Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said community members across the province “have made it clear that the presence of drug consumption sites near schools and daycares is leading to serious safety problems,” and that the government agrees.
In place of the CTS sites, the government is investing in 19 Homelessness and Addiction Recovery (HART) hubs, which aim to provide primary care, mental health and addictions care, employment support, as well as other supplies and services like Naloxone, showers and food. They will also aim to add up to 375 supportive housing units, as well as addiction and recovery beds.
Countless experts have spoken out against the decision, saying it will lead to more deaths. Samuel agrees.
Samuel said the changes will only make things worse. Drug users won’t have a centralized location anymore, and will be spread out around downtown, where Samuel said they are anyway.
“Crime is never going to go away unless they address the causes of the crime – living wages, cost of living, rent, access to housing,” he said – not safe supply.
However, he said there is definitely a need for in-house trained security who can properly diffuse conflicts that arise in and outside of the facilities, something recent expert reports suggested as well.
Further wraparound supports are also needed.
Samuel himself has struggled to maintain a job for what he believes is stigma regarding his past, and said the expectation that they are supposed to use the program and then “suddenly rise up to the occasion and be the best person you can be” isn’t realistic; there needs to be more wraparound support, especially when it comes to securing and maintaining employment and housing.
“Wraparound is (more) than just going to a therapist,” he said. “A lot of these people don’t have the life experience to feel comfortable doing these things, and that’s what pushes them towards (drug use), and then they fail and get more depressed.”
Rehab isn’t the solution either.
“You go to rehab, you get off dope, and your tolerance goes down to zero. You try using (at your previous dosage) again with zero tolerance, ok you’re dead,” he said.
People have endless potential, he said, and deserve the chance to meet it.
“You have no idea of their potential, what they’re going to grow up and become. I could theoretically find the cure for cancer, but one day I get high and die. There’s the life potential of the individual that you’re saving, but then you have the expanding factor of it: the trauma that the death causes (for the) brother, sister, parent, child.
He hopes by the time the program closes, his life will be more stable with a job – “the thing I need to fill that void for the supply,” he said. “I don't know. I'm just gonna try and make sure I'm good by then.
“I'm stable now, and once it closes, my ultimate fear is it all goes back to square one, and then I can't play in the band anymore, I can't maintain this relationship with my mom and I'll be alone again.
“Am I just going to be another statistic where I overdose in a random back alley, someone finds me, and I go by the wayside,” he said. “I’m absolutely terrified.”
He’s also concerned about what the impact will mean for others, especially those currently sitting in worse positions.
Last year Guelph and Wellington County saw an all-time high of 62 drug poisoning deaths, according to the Guelph Wellington Drug Strategy. So far this year there have been 28.
Samuel said the spike in overdoses is because of toxic supply – “it’s either xylazine, nitazines or other zines.”
And when the program shuts down in March, he said those numbers will rise as people return to getting and using their drugs on the street.
“It’s going to (cause) hundreds of deaths. That’s what I think they don’t get – they think it’s going to solve everything. But people are going to keep using, you’re gonna see way more needles everywhere, you’re going to see a lot more people dying in the street, shooting up in the street.”
- www.guelphtoday.com LETTER: Correcting misinformation from Ward 2 councillors
'I think my reply below to Ward 2 city councillors Klassen and Goller following their August 2024 community newsletter is important information,' a reader writes
- www.guelphmercury.com Friends of the Guelph Public Library preparing for a bigger Big Book Sale this September
Volunteers are busy organising donations and getting the new, bigger space ready to welcome book-lovers of all ages to this year’s Big Book Sale.
- www.guelphtoday.com Annual expo set to celebrate plants and people at the Arboretum
Arboretum Expo 2024 set for Sept. 7
- www.guelphtoday.com Province went against expert advice in closing safe consumption sites
Two government-commissioned reports recommended keeping existing drug consumption sites open across the province, increasing funding to stabilize staffing
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Filling the Gaps in Canada’s Rail Network: Guelph to Cambridge Line
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- www.guelphtoday.com This year’s BIG Book Sale in Guelph now accepting donations
This year's event takes place from Sept. 19-22 in a much larger venue located at 440 Elmira Rd. N.
- www.guelphtoday.com Nurses union says consumption site announcement a ‘death sentence’
Dr. Doris Grinspun, who heads up the Registered Nurses Association, said Ontario government is only making things worse for people with addictions
- www.guelphtoday.com Protest planned before Aug. 28 public space bylaw meeting
Special council meeting on Aug. 28 to bring back controversial bylaw proposal to regulate where encampments are set up
- guelphpolitico.ca Provincial Changes Mean Guelph’s CTS Will Be Gone By April
The Consumption and Treatment Site (CTS) at Guelph Community Health Centre will have to close by the end of March. This decree comes from the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario confere…
- www.guelphtoday.com Province orders Guelph's supervised consumption site closed by March
'Make no mistake – Ontario will lose more lives because of this government’s attack on harm reduction services,' says MPP Mike Schreiner
Province orders Guelph's supervised consumption site closed by March
'Make no mistake – Ontario will lose more lives because of this government’s attack on harm reduction services,' says MPP Mike Schreiner
Ontario Minister of Health, Sylvia Jones during her remarks at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoon.
Mayor Cam Guthrie is confident the province’s new model for addiction recovery will show positive results cities have been seeking.
The province formally announced Tuesday afternoon that nine provincially-funded consumption sites and one self-funded site will have to stop providing certain services, namely supervised safe consumption, safe supply and needle exchange, by the end of March.
The Guelph Community Health Centre’s Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site at 176 Wyndham St. is one of those affected because it is within 200 metres of a daycare or school.
The government will instead put $378 million toward 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery (HART) Hubs, said Sylvia Jones, Ontario Minister of Health in her remarks at Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa.
The Guelph Community Health Centre is eligible to apply to be one of those hubs, which will focus on offering a variety of services aimed at recovery.
"I commend the provincial government for moving forward with a detailed plan to save lives, restore families and improve communities struggling with the stranglehold of addictions. I am confident that the new HART Hub model, focused on recovery, will show the positive results cities have been desperately requesting for our most vulnerable citizens, not just in Guelph, but across Ontario,” said Guthrie in a press release.
The mayor later posted on social media that he was now focusing his energy "on doing whatever it takes to review the criteria on an application to obtain part of the $378 million funding for a HART HUB in our community."
The province is banning consumption sites located within a 200 metre zone of schools or childcare centres.
The nine sites will be given the opportunity to transition into a HART Hub “and will be prioritized as part of the application process,” said Jones.
The applications close October this year, she said during a media question and answer period.
“Our first priority must always be protecting our communities, especially when it comes to some of our most innocent and vulnerable - our children,” said Jones, in her speech.
Asked during a subsequent question period if people are going to die because of this move, given the number of overdoses trained staff respond to at the sites, Jones responded: "People are not going to die. They're going to get access to services."
The HART hubs aim to provide treatment including primary care, mental health and addictions care, social services, employment support, increased availability for shelter beds and supportive housing and other supplies and services like Naloxone, showers and food, she said.
“I want to be clear, they will not provide safe supply, supervised drug consumption or needle exchange programs,” said Jones.
Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner slammed the move.
“Make no mistake – Ontario will lose more lives because of this government’s attack on harm reduction services," said Schreiner.
Closing supervised consumption and treatment sites is not going to decrease drug use because providing care for substance users is not an either-or scenario. Ontario needs supervised consumption and treatment sites and it needs supportive housing and it needs accessible treatment options for people in addictions recovery, Schreiner said in a release.
"This decision is going to lead to more drug poisonings, more infectious disease spread and more people with one less pathway to judgment-free social services and addictions recovery treatment."
The Guelph CHC CTS site launched in 2019.
It started an overdose prevention site in 2018 as a temporary response to the city’s opioid crisis, according to a community consultation from 2019.
Guelph CHC, the Guelph Family Health Team and ARCH applied to the ministry of long-term care so it could offer CTS long-term. The application was successful.
Now, it has just over seven months to stop offering some of its key services.
- www.guelphtoday.com Internal Ontario government traffic forecast shows crushing gridlock ahead — even with the 413
Just 1,200 users to realize the controversial highway’s oft-touted half-hour time savings, the government projects
- www.guelphtoday.com First phase of east end bike track expected to be done next summer
City currently accepting bids to build asphalt pump track at Eastview Community Park
- www.guelphtoday.com Region of Waterloo ready to advance Cambridge-to-Guelph GO Transit proposal
Metrolinx could be asked to provide a GO Bus link between Cambridge and Guelph in the meantime
- www.guelphtoday.com Guelph and Elora featured in next episode of Amazing Race Canada
Wrestling, glass-blowing and the Elora Gorge are featured in the new episode on Tuesday
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'We just want answers': friends and family gather to remember Nathaniel
www.guelphtoday.com ICYMI: 'We just want answers': friends and family gather to remember NathanielPeople gather in memory of Nathaniel Schofield, who died in police custody July 10
- www.guelphtoday.com Province announces inquest into death of Fergus man killed by police
Mathias Bunyan was shot and killed by police while experiencing a mental health crisis at his Fergus apartment almost three years ago
- www.guelphtoday.com Weekend see and do: Riverfest Elora, markets and more
A list of things to see and do in and around Guelph this weekend
- www.guelphmercury.com ‘Nobody wants to live in a tent in the middle of winter on a street corner’: New book tells true stories about the people at Guelph’s Royal City Mission
“Stories from the Mission” has sold more than 200 copies in two months.
- www.guelphtoday.com Rainbow walkway installed at the University of Guelph
Painted flag ‘sends a strong message' of inclusion on campus
Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240814200030/https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/rainbow-walkway-installed-at-the-university-of-guelph-9349410
Rainbow walkway installed at the University of Guelph
Painted flag ‘sends a strong message' of inclusion on campus
In advance of arriving students, University of Guelph officials have overseen the installation of a rainbow walkway.
A Progress Pride flag was painted on the path from Winegard Walk to the McLaughlin Library. Its installation was announced in a post on the school’s website Wednesday morning.
“This pride flag sends a strong message that U of G is committed to the path to equality for everyone on our campus. The rainbow walkway is part of a broader strategy to continue making our campus more inclusive,” said Indira Naidoo-Harris, associate vice-president of diversity and human rights, in the post. “It’s a colourful reminder that LGBTQ2IA+ individuals are celebrated at U of G.
“The rainbow walkway says that we all have a part to play in creating a welcoming environment for everyone.”
Guelph was home to two rainbow crosswalks, but this is the first rainbow walkway. There’s a privately-owned one outside Stone Road Mall, and a municipal crosswalk at the intersection of Norfolk Street and Waterloo Avenue.
The university’s installation was funded by its ‘Highest Priority fund,’ through which individual donors contribute to things such as student assistance, activities and set strategic plan initiatives.
- www.guelphtoday.com A midsummer's transit rant
In this week's Market Squared, if you thought there were no more issues with transit, you were wrong.
- www.guelphtoday.com Proposed trail can offer new and sustainable 'gateway to Guelph'
Proposed transportation network extension to the Trans Canada Trail would run adjacent to the Guelph Junction Railway tracks
- www.guelphtoday.com Skyline wants to build 14-storey building across from city hall
Project proposed to include no parking spaces for residents or commercial tenants
Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240807211605/https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/skyline-wants-to-build-12-storey-building-across-from-city-hall-9322386
Skyline wants to build 14-storey building across from city hall
Project proposed to include no parking spaces for residents or commercial tenants
A dozen levels may be added to a two-storey building across from city hall, with zero parking for residents or commercial tenants.
That’s the plan put forward by Skyline Retail Asset Management Inc. for its properties at 26-40 Carden St. and 27-39 Macdonell St. – the red brick building that straddles the two downtown streets.
If approved, the building is to include 120 residential units or student housing with 211 beds and 595.1 square metres of ground floor commercial space.
Skyline previously sought approval from the city’s committee of adjustment to add four storeys to the building, but that application was withdrawn. That plan also sought approval for zero parking spaces to be required.
A public meeting is slated for Sept. 10, in order for council to hear comments on proposed official plan and zoning amendments needed for the project to go ahead as-is.
As it stands, the city’s official plan caps the height there at six storeys.
Among the zoning bylaw amendments being sought is approval to include no parking in the project.
“It is anticipated that this development will be occupied by transit users, active transportation reliant individuals and those living, working or studying in the downtown area,” states a Skyline letter submitted to the city.
“The practice of allowing downtown developments with zero parking, is being adopted in a number of Ontario municipalities. For example, the municipalities of Kitchener, London and Ottawa allow downtown developments with zero parking for residential and non-residential uses,” adds a parking study report. “The proposed development is consistent with this practice and with the City of Guelph’s emphasis on sustainable transportation policies and objectives.
“In addition, off-site parking facilities that offer long-term residential parking permits, as well as parking lots and on-street parking for short-term parking, are located within walking distance from the development.”
The Sept. 10 public meeting will be held at city hall, during council’s monthly planning session which begins at 6 p.m.
City staff, which is in the process of reviewing the proposal, is slated to release a report Aug. 30, including its recommendation for city council to approve or reject the plan.
- www.guelphtoday.com Renovictions show need for bylaw, say Brant Ave. residents
Residents of a rent controlled apartment complex on Brant Avenue are facing renoviction, and advocates are pushing for intervention from the city
- www.guelphtoday.com Palestinian arts and culture festival in Guelph this weekend
Beside the Boathouse on Gordon Street Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Archive Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240807132022/https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/palestinian-arts-and-culture-festival-in-guelph-this-weekend-9314290
Palestinian arts and culture festival in Guelph this weekend
Beside the Boathouse on Gordon Street Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
A new festival celebrating Palestinian arts, culture and community is happening this Saturday.
Palestine in the Park will include a series of events, including an artists market, activities for kids, snacks, performances and an outdoor film screening.
There will also be a kite-making workshop, and drop-in activities like an arts and crafts table, a Palestine-themed nature scavenger hunt, a reading nook and more.
The festival will take place from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. besides the Boathouse on Gordon Street. The admission fee is by donation. Registration for workshops is required. ___
- www.guelphtoday.com LETTER: Drivers are not stuck in traffic – they 'are' the traffic
If letter writer 'experienced riding a bicycle, he would find appreciation in the protections put in place for cyclists', reader says
- www.guelphmercury.com ‘Zero return’: Lack of office workers in downtown Guelph leads Planet Bean’s Wyndham Street café to close during weekdays
People gradually returning to downtown offices, but numbers may not reach pre-COVID levels, city’s general manager of economic development and tourism says.
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Vote now for Guelph's best businesses with Guelph Today's Reader Favourites program!
www.guelphtoday.com Guelph Business DirectoryFind business listings from Guelph and the area on GuelphToday.com
- www.guelphtoday.com Aggressive dogs and owner seen frequenting Riverside Park
Guelph Off-Road Bicycling Association and the Guelph Hiking Trail Club raised concerns about safety to their members
- www.guelphtoday.com Pro-Palestine advocates set up encampment at the U of G
Statement from university says it's reviewing protesters' demand to stop making military investments tied to Israel
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City scraps downtown pedestrian bridge project in Guelph Ontario.
www.guelphtoday.com City nixes planned Ward to downtown pedestrian bridge'This decision allows pedestrian bridge options for the area to be evaluated with further input from the community'
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15520203
> Months after cancelling the construction contract for a new downtown pedestrian bridge in the face of “unforeseen challenges,” city officials have called off the project altogether. > > As stated in a post on the city’s website on Friday, plans to build a bridge over the Speed River connecting The Ward with Downtown Guelph have been scrapped. Instead, city officials will look for ways to include pedestrian flow into another nearby project over the river.
- www.guelphtoday.com Repair Cafe on Saturday to fix bikes, clocks, jewelry and more
The Repair Cafe is May 11 at 216 Silvercreek Pkwy from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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Group wants to turn former correctional centre in Guelph into an urban park
globalnews.ca Group wants to turn former correctional centre in Guelph into an urban park | Globalnews.caUrban Park Guelph are encouraging residents to sign an online petition to push the federal government into creating a national urban park at the old Guelph Correctional Centre.
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Here's the latest on The Albion Hotel - GuelphToday
www.guelphtoday.com Here's the latest on The Albion HotelOwner says he plans on moving The Round Table to the second floor and still plans for a speakeasy on the main floor; but no timeline yet
Owner says he plans on moving The Round Table to the second floor and still plans for a speakeasy on the main floor; but no timeline yet
https://web.archive.org/web/20240104143718/https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/heres-the-latest-on-the-albion-hotel-8051136
- www.guelphtoday.com Local restaurant again set to provide 150 free meals on Christmas Day
Hitesh and Kirtida Jagad will give out 150 meals on Dec. 25 from Kirtida Kitchen like they have done for the past few years
Hitesh and Kirtida Jagad will give out 150 meals on Dec. 25 from Kirtida Kitchen like they have done for the past few years
https://web.archive.org/web/20231221145027/https://www.guelphtoday.com/lets-eat/local-restaurant-again-set-to-provide-150-free-meals-on-christmas-day-8009213
- www.guelphtoday.com GuelphToday reporter detained, camera seized while covering news event
An OPP officer detained a senior reporter with GuelphToday Wednesday morning at the scene of a fatal collision, and his memory card was seized by the coroner's office
An OPP officer detained a senior reporter with GuelphToday Wednesday morning at the scene of a fatal collision, and his memory card was seized by the coroner's office
https://web.archive.org/web/20231220184748/https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/guelphtoday-reporter-detained-camera-seized-while-covering-news-event-8009575
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Give feedback on Guelph's first four-year budget
www.haveyoursay.guelph.ca Guelph's Multi-year BudgetWe’re here to ask the question “how do we build our community? And in turn, to learn what elements of community building matter most to you. Click here to begin Looking for other ways to get involved in the 2024-27 budget decision making? Click below and jump to our
This is the first time Guelph is will have a multi-year budget. This one will cover 2024 through 2027. The city is soliciting feedback through town halls and council meetings, since a long-term budget will have a significant impact on the city.
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Guelph is considering a Dark Sky Bylaw
www.haveyoursay.guelph.ca Dark Sky BylawParticipate in workshops on November 9 and November 14, and have your say online in the new year. We want your thoughts on the need for a Dark Sky bylaw in Guelph. Join us during one of our upcoming workshops to learn more about the process, explore reasons for reducing
Two workshops are planned to learn more and share ideas: first online on November 9, second in-person on November 14. More opportunities to get involved will come in January.