Guelph overdose prevention site is anxiously awaiting word form the provincial government on whether it will remain open past March 31.
Last month Health Canada gave the Guelph site an extension to stay open, which is a necessary step in the process, but it is the provincial government that holds the fate of the site in its hands.
The province has said April 1 is the deadline to announce which locations will become permanent under its new Consumption and Treatment Services Model. Guelph was one of the locations to apply for permanent status.
"If you were to be approved, you would receive funding for that program," said Raechelle Devereaux, executive director of the Community Health Centre which hosts the site.
"We are anxiously awaiting a decision form the provincial government on that. We feel we've just come through our fifth fentanyl alert warning in our community and so we certainly reached out to the ministry and let them know Guelph is a community in need and to remind them of that."
The site offers a safe place for people to consume drugs in a supervised setting.
It also provides information, supports and references to help those that use the site make changes in their lives.
In less than a year of operation the site has seen 35 overdose reversals.
Devereaux said the exemption from Health Canada is one of the steps necessary to operate. It shows that the Guelph site passes the legal threshold necessary to operate.
The Guelph location's temporary exemption granted last October by the province was scheduled to expire Feb. 1.
Health Canada does not currently fund overdose prevention sites.
"We are pleased to have received that first domino, now we're waiting for the rest of the pieces to be put in place," Devereaux said.
"It was an important criteria to have met ... all steps forward are positive and new we just wait for the province."
