Sudbury’s supervised consumption site, pictured in August, closed at the end of March because of inadequate funds. It was approved in 2021 but has been awaiting provincial funding for two and a half years.Gino Donato/The Canadian Press
Advocates of supervised consumption sites are calling on the Ontario government to immediately fund and approve new facilities to address the toxic drug crisis, accusing the province of delaying a long-awaited review of the centres.
The Ontario government last summer launched a review of the province’s 17 consumption and treatment services sites, which allows people to bring in and use illegal drugs under supervision to prevent overdoses or spread of infectious diseases. The government also initiated a third-party review of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre in east Toronto, after a 44-year-old mother of two was killed by a stray bullet outside of the site last July.
In the fall, the government said it was pausing the approval of new sites while the reviews were under way. The results of the reviews are expected in the coming weeks, with the government promising more “accountability measures,” a focus on safety and increased obligations to communities as a result.
On Tuesday, advocates and supporters of the sites are set to hold a Queen’s Park rally, organized by a group called Friends of Ontario SCS, to demand emergency provincial funding. Speakers include community advocates and centre workers from Timmins, Barrie and Sudbury.
The debate over how best to tackle addiction – as well as combat toxic street drugs – has taken centre stage in recent weeks. British Columbia scaled back its plan to decriminalize small amounts of drugs in public after community outcry, and the City of Toronto recently had its similar request rejected by the federal government.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has spoken critically of drug decriminalization, calling it “an absolute nightmare,” and called on the federal government to stop approving safer-supply drug sites and to conduct a formal review of current ones in the province. In safer-supply programs, medical professionals prescribe controlled substances as a safer alternative to the illegal drug supply.
According to the HIV Legal Network, overdoses have doubled in recent years. Between April, 2020, and March, 2022, 15,134 people died of an overdose, compared with 7,906 between April, 2018, and March, 2020. A total of 3,970 people apparently died of opioid toxicity between January and June, 2023 – an average of 22 deaths per day, the organization said.
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In the meantime, funding and approval of additional supervised consumption sites – called consumption and treatment services in Ontario – has been put on hold. At least two sites, in Sudbury and Windsor, have been forced to close because of a lack of funds, advocates say. A site in Timmins has seen reduced hours, and a centre serving the Barrie area was never able to open, advocates say.
“This crisis is not getting better. It’s not even plateauing. It’s getting worse,” said Amber Fritz, the outreach co-ordinator at Réseau Access Network in Sudbury.
The consumption site at the centre in Sudbury closed at the end of March, Ms. Fritz said, because of inadequate funds. It was approved in 2021 by Health Canada for an exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, but has been awaiting provincial funding for two and a half years, she said. In that time, the centre was kept afloat by municipal funding and then private donations, but the money dried up this spring.
Ms. Fritz said the district of Sudbury has three times the overdoses per capital compared with the rest of the province.
“People have nowhere else to go,” she said. “We are hoping our funding is granted … we’ve heard nothing.”
In Timmins, which has also never received provincial funding, the site was previously funded municipally and is currently funded by the local branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association. But it isn’t enough, said Jason Sereda, a community advocate, who said the site has seen its hours reduced.
“I’ve seen a lot of those people die. And they’ve died because they haven’t had access to the supports that would have kept them alive,” he said.
Matthew Shoemaker, the mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, who campaigned in 2022 on bringing a site to his region, said the application for his city is in limbo. He said the province’s review is taking longer than expected and it appears to be “based upon ideology and not medical evidence.”
He added that “it’s obvious the province does not want these within Ontario. The further you drive away from Queen’s Park, the worse the stats get on the opioid file. And in the farthest away cities, you have the least amount of services.”
Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said the 17 sites currently operating in the province are continuing to be funded while the government completes its review.
“These reviews remain ongoing and will inform the next steps taken by the Ministry of Health regarding CTS (consumption treatment sites) including funding, location and application decisions,” she said in a statement.
Angela Robertson, executive director of the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, which operates two consumption treatment sites in Toronto, said the province’s review is focused on safety and security and will include crime prevention requirements. She said she has concerns that new requirements will come at additional costs for the centres, which may not be able to afford them.
“I would be concerned if the decisions that are made by political leadership are solely based on politics and not on evidence,” she said.
Laura Stone