The Ontario government 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.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Ontario is set to unveil its new approach to supervised drug consumption sites, after a shooting outside a Toronto facility last summer prompted the province to launch a review and impose a moratorium on new locations.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones is expected to announce the update Tuesday at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa, an annual meeting for the province’s 444 municipalities to address key issues they are facing – including homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness.
Harm-reduction measures such as supervised consumption sites are crucial to saving lives, and government-imposed restrictions to them can be fatal, health advocates say. Known as consumption and treatment services sites in Ontario, they allow people to bring in and use illicit drugs under supervision to prevent overdoses or spread of infectious diseases.
But they have also been under increased scrutiny across the country over their safety impact on surrounding communities. Premier Doug Ford said earlier this month that he’s “not sold” on the sites, calling them a “haven for drug dealers” and said he wants more detox treatment beds instead.
Last summer, Ontario launched a review of the province’s 17 sites. 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 province said it was pausing the funding and approval of new sites while the reviews were under way. The government has promised more “accountability measures,” a focus on safety and increased obligations to communities.
Earlier this month, Ontario’s Big City Mayors, a group of the leaders of the province’s 29 largest cities representing about 70 per cent of the population, launched a new public campaign to call for expanded, predictable funding from both provincial and federal governments to tackle homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward of Burlington, west of Toronto, who chairs the Big City Mayors group, called the situation an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
She and her fellow mayors say the scale of the problem requires much more money and much more action. Without it, she said, more homeless people will die on the streets, and residents won’t feel safe in parks and downtowns across the province. More than 2,500 people now die of drug overdoses a year in Ontario alone.
Marie Nash, Ms. Meed Ward’s chief of staff, said in an e-mail Monday that the Big City Mayors group does not have a position on supervised consumption sites but is “very interested” in details of the announcement.
Doris Grinspun, chief executive officer of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, said she is aware the government’s announcement is coming Tuesday. She said she hopes the province funds all of the sites that currently exist – including ones that have had to close their doors owing to lack of funding, in places such as Sudbury and Windsor – and invests more money in wraparound services for initiatives such as housing and mental-health supports.
“The reality is people will not quit using substances because we don’t have safe consumption sites. What we will have is more people using in the streets, we will have more needles that are infected, we will have more people dying from toxic drugs,” Ms. Grinspun said in an interview.
Angela Robertson, executive director of the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, which operates two consumption treatment sites in Toronto, said she’s seen an increase in people using the services as a result of increased toxicity in the drug supply. There are currently 10 sites in Toronto, six funded by the province.
Ms. Robertson said there’s also been an increase in opposition to the sites among residential communities and businesses that are concerned about discarded paraphernalia and safety issues. She said there are also community concerns about a lack of shelter beds and housing, which has escalated since the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said she’s worried there will be even more restrictions on the sites after the province’s review. In the past year, she said there were 766 overdoses at her sites, which could have led to hundreds of deaths. If the government adds further restrictions to services, such as increased security, she said that could lead to funding concerns.
“If we aren’t able to comply with security measures that may be identified, then what does that mean for the service?” Ms. Robertson said, adding there may also be new restrictions on locations, such as proximities to schools.
“If these services are de-funded and are closed, then what we know will happen is that people will die. That’s just a stark reality.”