Guelph has earmarked half a million dollars in its 2025 budget to address any service gaps that occur when the city's consumption and treatment site closes next spring.
Included in an update on the 2025 Land Ambulance budget presented at a Wednesday afternoon Joint Social Services Committee meeting, staff said a reserve allocation of $500,000 has been "earmarked" for any additional land ambulance costs associated with the closure of Guelph's Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site.
Staff also recommended the county "do the same."
"This is a preliminary earmark of contingency reserve capacity as the financial impacts of this change are currently unknown," said staff in the report.
This follows a request from county councillor Mathew Bulmer in September for more information on how many ambulance trips have been prevented by Guelph's CTS to help the committee understand how the Guelph Wellington Paramedic Services capacity might change post-closure.
The province previously announced nine consumption sites in Ontario – including the Guelph CHC's CTS at 175 Wyndham St. – will have to stop providing services like supervised safe consumption, safe supply and needle exchange on-site by the end of March 2025 because they are within 200 metres of a daycare or school.
The CTS may be replaced with one of 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery (HART) Hubs intended to provide primary care, mental health and addiction care, social services, employment support and increased availability for shelter beds, supportive housing and other supplies and services.
"I think the city has heard the concerns that were raised by committee members and by the Community Health Centre and I think this is a legitimate, reasonable response to a legitimate concern," said Bulmer at the meeting.
The report was received for information.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
