A vote against the Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub at the Ramada Inn in Timmins was defeated in a tie vote at Timmins Council Tuesday night. But the councillor for that ward says it still sends a message to the province.
Rock Whissell says the people of his ward are behind the concept, but not the location, or the Cochrane District Services Board organizing it.
He knows the source of the money and the amount to buy the hotel, because he was on the Services Board when it was approved. But it was in an in-camera meeting, so Whissell is frustrated that he can’t disclose it publicly.
“I was one vote of 14 when this came up in the in-camera meeting,” he remarks. “I did support it at the time because I did believe in the HART project, but it’s so unorganized and so not going in the right direction with the support of the community, that I could no longer support it.”
Whissell says it should be the Service Board’s function to organize the groups to work together on the HART Hub, but Timmins and District Hospital should be the lead.
“There’s no reason why the hospital weren’t the ones applying for this HART application. They’ve done applications in prior years, and the last two applications were through the hospital, and I still don’t understand why DSSAB are the ones leading the venue.”
Whissell emphasizes that he supports the HART concept, but not the Ramada Inn for the site.
