Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie visited the City of Belleville on Thursday.
Crombie spoke with Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis to discuss homelessness and the addictions crisis taking place in the city and the request for operating and capital funding to help build a new detox centre.
“It’s critically necessary for the community and (the city is) looking to build more support,” Crombie told media members after her meeting with Mayor Ellis.
“We can understand why the emergency was declared because it’s a very acute issue here. Certainly the mayor and his team are taking it very seriously and are reaching out to other levels of government for support.”
The City of Belleville declared a state of emergency on February 8 after there were close to two dozen reports of overdoses in two days.
Following discussions with the province and municipal officials after the State of Emergency was declared, Premier Doug Ford said the Ministry of Health would help to provide a financial commitment to a new detox centre.
Funding for The Bridge services hub was done by the city on its own.
“When you look at where the spending is going, not enough is being done for mental health care and addiction,” Crombie said.
“I will say that as a former mayor, I recognize that this is an issue that’s been downloaded to the municipalities to cope with and certainly municipal budgets aren’t designed to cope with mental health care, addiction issues, the vast homelessness issue that exists today. The budgets are not designed to cope with it. That assistance from provincial governments is necessary.”
Crombie called the ongoing state of emergency in Belleville an “acute” problem.
“I think the mayor was correct in announcing that an emergency existed here to get the attention of Queen’s Park because he was desperate, desperate for solutions,” Crombie tells media.
“The funding doesn’t exist here among the local population. You have to go to a different level of government, the provincial level of government is the appropriate level of government to appeal to.”
Speaking with media, Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis said it was good to connect with Crombie.
“I think it was a visit to see the issues in Ontario and I think Bonnie’s doing a tour of a lot of cities by the sounds of it and she says the same issues are coming up,” Ellis tells media.
Ellis says doctor recruitment was also discussed in his conversations with Crombie.
“I think she’s looking for solutions, but it’s a long road to find solutions for some of those issues,” Ellis said.
He says he’s hopeful all parties will work together to help address the overdose crisis in Belleville.
“It’s definitely not partisan at all to talk to all the leaders over the crisis,” Ellis said.
“The NDP’s Marit Stiles, she called, Bonnie called, and the premier came down. So hopefully, I say all governments got to work together, but hopefully opposition parties can work together with governments.”
