Ontario Health says it is working to keep 53 addiction treatment centers in the North Bay as it moves on from a failed deal with Canadore College to staff and operate the proposed Northern Ontario Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence.

See related: Canadore ‘discontinues’ Lakeshore substance abuse treatment project

“After careful consideration, a decision has been made to terminate the province’s contract with Canadore College,” Ontario Health’s media team wrote in a response to BayToday.

“Ontario Health lost confidence in Canadore’s ability to meet the operational and clinical requirements necessary to open the 53 addiction recovery beds. Over the past two years, Ontario Health has been working with Canadore College officials, giving them ample opportunity to started this project and Canadore was unable to handle clinical and operational requirements.”

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Attempts to gain more insight into Canadores’ view of the damning statement from Ontario Health will go unmet. Along with its media release issued Thursday afternoon, Canadore included a disclaimer saying the school “will not comment further on this matter” and directed all inquiries about “the future of substance abuse treatment and the treatment beds” to Ontario Health.

See also: Canador’s Delayed Addiction Treatment Center is lurching forward

On Thursday, after years of delays, Canadore College confirmed it is no longer part of the Northern Ontario Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence project slated for the former parking lot on Lakeshore Drive.

“Canadore College will discontinue the Northern Ontario Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence project. We have been informed by Ontario Health that funding for the project has ended. All activities will be discontinued early in the new year.

“The genesis of the Addiction Treatment Center and Canador’s commitment was the opportunity to serve as a model site in the province to demonstrate a new approach to addiction treatment that embraced a holistic approach and to be designated as the training site for treatment centers in Northern Ontario.

“While we are disappointed by Ontario Health’s decision, we take comfort in the fact that the 53 treatment beds will remain in the Nipissing region.”

Questions remain about the current level of involvement in the project by Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Addiction Michael Tibollo, who met with Canadore’s George Burton and Frank Suraci in 2021 to broker the original proposal that brought together Canadore and the owner of the property at 352 Lakeshore Dr. Sources say Tibollo tried to open similar treatment centers in other markets, with at least some of them involving similar ownership structures.

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Ontario Health indicates the project is not dead but will have different leadership.

“Ontario Health has launched a targeted expression of interest for health care providers in the region who have the clinical expertise and operational capability to get this project done. This will ensure that the 53 addiction recovery beds originally allocated to the Canadore College project will remain in Nipissing District, connecting people to the care and support they need, in their community for years to come.”

The development has been shrouded in secrecy since its approval was announced in February 2022. In October, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli confident that the Northern Ontario Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence would open soon its doors and expected officials would share news of its opening date.

Fedeli remains confident the center will open, telling BayToday on Friday, “Safe, quality care for clients seeking withdrawal and residential addiction treatment remains a priority and the 53 addiction recovery beds will remain in Nipissing District. Ontario Health has moved quickly to issue a targeted expression of interest to established health care providers in the region who have the clinical expertise and operational capability needed to implement this project.”

BACKGROUND

In February 2022, Canadore College announced that North Bay would be home to a new, fully staffed, 53-bed substance abuse treatment center and the school’s mental health and substance abuse students would be trained at the facility. At the same event, Tibollo and Fedeli announced the $6.84 million grant through the Addictions Recovery Fund “to immediately improve access to bedside addiction treatment supports in Nipissing.”

The logic behind the Ford government sending Tibollo to North Bay to build the 53-bed Lakeshore Drive treatment center so soon after the closure of a similar program with 29 beds has never been justified. Local health care and addictions experts have quietly wondered why the pendulum of care that had swung in what they saw as a positive direction almost immediately swung back to a model many see as less effective.

For the next two years after the announcement, the construction site due to the former Lakeshore Drive car dealership was often inactive. 2022 was Canadores’ goal to open that summer, then it was moved to early 2023. When Tibollo visited the much-delayed project site in November 2023, he acknowledged the challenges arising from the delays and the target date was again pushed back to an “early opening date of 2024”.

See: VIDEO: Update on delayed local addiction treatment center

In July 2022, Canadore announced Wendy Prieur as its choice to lead the facility. Prieur and her staff of five had been on call and compensated through much of the construction delay while performing their duties behind the scenes. Prieur said in November 2023 that the facility’s staff would grow to 22 by opening day.

Berkshire Enterprises, the owner of the property where the Northern Ontario Addiction Treatment Center of Excellence would be located, is involved in several property deals across the province, including Trout Creek Senior Livingwhich went up for sale due to delinquent property taxes before a last minute postponement in April.