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Sault Ste. Marie’s top cop is optimstic the city will get provincial help to assist residents deal with opioid addiction.
Hugh Stevenson, chief of Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, said partnerships working together to get funding from the provincial government are “really quite strong.
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“I’m getting more optimistic something is going to happen,” Stevenson told The Sault Star following a Sault Ste. Marie Police Services Board meeting last Thursday. “What I’ve noticed is there’s a consistent message that people in this community need a treatment facility, a detox facility, that’s properly staffed both short-and long-term to deal with this crisis.”
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Sault This Week reached out to the mayor and all members of city council to get an idea of how local decision-makers feel about the past year. Of those who responded, most agree that the City of Sault Ste. Marie has fared about as well as could be hoped since the pandemic began. It saw many ups and downs, due in large part to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “Compared to other municipalities, SSM as a corporation has fared well,” said Ward 2 Coun. Luke Dufour. “The revenue losses were largely made up for with relief monies from the federal and provincial government and did not result in a significant levy increase or service cut like we saw in many other cities.”
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A number of initiatives are underway to improve the health of Sault Ste. Marie.
City council heard Monday that a new, larger Neighbourhood Resources Centre is getting ready to open its doors and will also include a new men’s shelter and community supports. It will be led by the Social Services.
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The Gore Street Neighbourhood Resource Centre had closed when the pandemic began and as a result of the Sault St. Marie Police Service withdrawing as lead operator of that facility.
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The Metis Nation of Ontario is establishing a cultural centre in Sault Ste. Marie.
City council approved a planning application earlier this week that will see the former St. John’s Church at John and Albert streets be transformed into a cultural centre, an assembly hall and house the association’s offices.
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The cultural centre is geared to preserving the Metis culture and the rich heritage of the area, said applicant Jason Naccarato on behalf of the Metis Nation of Ontario.
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Sault Ste. Marie District Social Services Administration Board saw a decrease in some of its services in 2020, but demand for other services dramatically increased. DSSAB saw a 12 per cent decrease in its Ontario Works caseload, following a province-wide trend. Luke Dufour, Ward 2 city councillor and chair of the DSSAB Board of Directors, told Sault This Week this can be attributed to the introduction of CERB, which led to fewer people needing to access OW. “We expect caseloads to begin to increase in 2021 as the taxable portion of CERB begins to be paid back to the federal government and EI periods begin to end,” said Dufour. “This will be the time where we have a better picture of how the local workforce has fared and will depend on if our caseloads return to ‘normal’ or if they have gone higher.”