Over the next two weeks, CambridgeToday will run a series of articles in which candidates in the Kitchener South-Hespeler and Cambridge ridings will address key issues in the upcoming election.
We have asked each candidate to provide answers to 10 questions which will then be shared with our readers, one at a time, in the days leading up to the election.
In Cambridge there are five candidates, including incumbent Belinda Karahalios.
In Kitchener South-Hespeler, which does not have an incumbent in the running, there are six candidates.
Candidates whose answers do not appear below did not respond to our request.
Here is our third question of candidates:
Do you support a Consumption and Treatment Services site in Cambridge?
Marjorie Knight - NDP - Cambridge
Yes, absolutely.
The opioid crisis is a public health crisis that continues to ruin lives and devastate families in our community. Everyone deserves timely access to mental health or addictions services.
We need consumption and treatment service sites to save lives. CTS sites are an avenue for people to get the help they need and will keep people out of our emergency rooms. It will ensure that people get the care they need to stay healthy and help them move towards recovery. I believe we need to invest more in harm reduction strategies, mental health care, and work to address the social determinants of health, such as poverty and lack of affordable housing.
Surekha Shenoy - Liberal - Cambridge
• The confirmed number of opioid-related deaths in 2020 was 106, which represented nearly a 50 per cent increase over 2019.
• The Region’s paramedics logged 1,504 overdose-related calls in 2021.
• The time spent responding to opioid overdose calls each day results in delayed response times for other emergency calls in the region.
Opening a CTS in Cambridge is intended to reduce overdoses and related deaths. Too many people have died and will continue to die if we continue to push this issue into politics rather than leading with facts, figures, and proof.
Cambridge Memorial Hospital has provided information for the community, prepared by experts in Mental Health, Kristin Kerr, CND OHT Mental Health and Addiction Steering Committee and Kristina Eliashevsky, CND OHT Transformation Lead.
Substance use is not a political issue, it is a matter of life and death for so many in our community. Consumption and Treatment Sites are proven to work, both in saving lives and addressing many community concerns that come with substance use. These programs work in many surrounding communities, including Kitchener, Guelph, London, and St. Catharines.
As experts in this field and service providers, we welcome the opportunity to educate and explain, rather than further stigmatizing people who use drugs.
Carla Johnson - Green - Cambridge
Always have. Always will. I was a strong, open proponent of it before it was launched. It was a real shame that our city was so slow responding to needs in our community.
Belinda Karahalios - New Blue - Cambridge
I have made my position consistently clear on this issue – I oppose a drug injection site in Cambridge. A drug injection site does not fix the problem that site advocates claim it will fix, a drug injection site is also against the will of Cambridge residents.
I will continue to advocate against a drug injection site and will also oppose moves by the provincial and local governments to fund (with taxpayer money) a so-called “safe supply” of narcotics in Cambridge.
Brian Riddell - PC - Cambridge
Yes – but it’s not the only answer. Our mental health and addictions strategy, Roadmap to Wellness, has also made significant new investments in the province’s addictions treatment system, including here in Cambridge.
David Weber - Green - Kitchener South-Hespeler
Yes, I support CTS sites with the emphasis on Treatment Services. The only way that support programs work, is when you have readily available supports for drug addiction recovery and those supports are effectively used to help those in need.
Jess Dixon - PC - Kitchener South-Hespeler
As a crown attorney, I spend every day working for the people of our community and am deeply involved in issues of mental health and addiction.
Doug Ford and the PCs are making the largest investment in Canadian history to expand mental health and addictions system for Ontarians. Our government was the first to name a minister for Mental Health and Addictions.
We are providing more than $31 million in annual funding for 21 Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) in communities in need across Ontario -- which go through a rigorous screening process to ensure these sites are established where they are needed the most.
This funding is in addition to the $90 million we're investing through the new Addictions Recovery Fund to increase the number of addictions treatment beds across the province.
We will continue to make sure people are getting access to the mental health and addictions services they deserve.
Joanne Weston - NDP - Kitchener South-Hespeler
Opioid-related deaths are on the rise and the opioid crisis continues to ruin lives and devastate families across Ontario. In the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario,1,237 people died of opioid-related causes – an average of six people a day. Consumption and Treatment Services sites save lives.
In the first year of Kitchener’s CTS, 130 overdoses were reversed and thousands were referred for mental health support and medical services. As the candidate for Kitchener South-Hespeler, I support a Consumption and Treatment Service site in Cambridge to help our neighbours in our community who struggle with addiction.
The NDP will declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency, invest in harm reduction strategies immediately, fund the mental health and addiction infrastructure our community needs, and address the social determinants of health, such as poverty and lack of affordable housing, of people living with an opioid addiction. The NDP believes in working with stakeholders and other levels of government to make lives better for people suffering from mental health distresses and addiction.
