Serving the community in a new way since 2021, the Community Wellness Bus -- a former ambulance -- may be nearing the end of its second life.
Over the course of the winter, the bus has been inoperable on a number of occasions, most recently near the beginning of the month when it was off of the road for a week and a half.
Annette Katajamaki is CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association Algoma, one of eight organizations that collaborate to run the bus.
Katajamaki said that its home at the Community Resource Centre has been a common location of late, as the bus awaits repairs.
"Some of the repairs include bottom parts of the bus that were falling off,” she said.
“There were some ignition issues, there were tire issues, lights coming on. The normal wear and tear that you would expect."
The bus typically runs four days per week. Katajamaki said in the last two years, the bus has served about 5,000 people a year, and "people flock to it" when they park at one of the many locations throughout the Sault.
Staff from the various organizations provide basic medical care, they give out items like food and clothing, as well as point people to addiction, mental health and other services.
"They've come to expect those services over the last three years or so," said Lisa Case, the Sault Area Hospital's clinical director for mental health and addictions.
Would end up in the hospital
"The risk is that if it’s not running, then people go nowhere, or they go elsewhere, for example, they go to the Sault Area Hospital's emergency department."
With repairs needed more frequently, they have submitted funding proposals to the Ford government for years to cover the program's expenses, with no success.
"We rely on community donations," said Katajamaki.
"We rely on all of the agencies just putting some money, putting in the staff. The DSSAB takes care of the asset for us. They put in the gas, they do all the maintenance work and they make sure it’s as fixable as possible."
Case said that the request to the province is around $1 million a year.
"There would be a capital ask, for the infrastructure itself, so purchasing a bus or something similar,” she said.
“Some operational maintenance costs for that bus, obviously insurance, gas, and such. Then the human resource side, staffing and supplies."
The government currently pays for similar types of wellness bus programs in other cities for the same amount. A new bus itself costs roughly $350,000.
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