A date has been set for local officials to meet with Ontario's health minister about Sarnia-Lambton's long-planned withdrawal management centre.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said a small delegation will sit down with Christine Elliott on the afternoon of March 12.
"I'm pleased that a meeting has been arranged and we were willing to travel anywhere in the province to meet with the minister and we're going to Toronto, hoping to have a small, community-based delegation including representation from the labour council, the Chamber of Commerce, the first nations and several people that are dealing directly with the issue of what's going on in this community as it relates to opioids and a withdrawal management detox centre," said Bradley.
Mayor Bradley said the goal is to remind the province that funding for a detox facility has been a priority for a number of years.
"It is my hope that the meeting won't be necessary. Between now and the four or five weeks when the meeting's to take place in Toronto with the minister of health, that the ministry will move forward and make the announcement. That's all I want from my perspective as mayor, is the announcement. Hopefully, we won't have to wait long or more months and months and months."
Bradley said the community has identified it as a pressing need.
"So, let's just get on with it and do it. In the scheme of the health ministry budget, it's very, very small and it is very needed and would take pressures off the rest of the ministry's budget. So, it is something that needs to happen sooner than later."
Back in November 2018, during a visit to Sarnia, Premier Doug Ford indicated his government would support funding the proposed 24-bed centre, estimated to cost $8.8 million
Minister Elliott told reporters during a visit to Sarnia last August that the province was working to coordinate the capital and policy sides of the project.
