Ontario premier defends plan to close 10 supervised drug consumption sites, despite experts calling for more to open

Premier Doug Ford is defending his government’s decision to shutter 10 of Ontario’s 23 supervised drug consumption sites due to their proximity to schools and child care centres.

“I just don't believe safe consumption sites. I've listened to the people in the neighbourhoods. I've consulted with them. I've been getting endless phone calls about needles being in the parks, needles being by the schools, and by the daycares. That's unacceptable,” Ford told reporters following an unrelated news conference in St. Catharine’s on Wednesday afternoon.

“Giving someone, an addict, a place to do their injections, we haven't seen it get better. This was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's the worst thing that could ever happen to a community to have one of these safe injection sites in their neighbourhood.”

The ban, which was officially announced on Tuesday afternoon, will impact nine provincially funded Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) along with one self-funded overdose prevention site. Five of those programs are in Toronto, while the others are in Guelph, Hamilton, Thunder Bay, Waterloo, and Ottawa. They must close by no later than March 31, 2025.

Ford said that his government’s new plan to invest $378 million to open 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs is “what we believe in.”

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) outlined details about these hubs, saying that they would "reflect regional priorities by connecting people with complex needs to comprehensive treatment and preventative services" as well as offer primary care, mental health services. addiction care and support, social services and employment support, shelter and transition beds, supportive housing, and other supplies and services like naloxone, onsite showers, and food.

The province also said its plan for HART Hubs is to add 375 "highly supportive" housing units along with addiction recovery and treatment beds.

And while these sites won’t be allowed to deliver needle exchange programs, they may be permitted to offer needle return or collection service, the MOH said in an Aug. 20 news release. Ontario’s Minister of Health Sylvia Jones noted that the hubs would not be permitted to offer safe supply or supervised drug consumption.

The provincial government is encouraging the nine affected CTS sites to submit proposals to transition to HART Hubs and said that they may be eligible for up to four times more funding than they previously received and would be prioritized in the application process.

The South Riverdale Community Health Centre is seen in this photograph (Beth Macdonell)

 

2 external reviews call for more CTS programs

Ontario’s new plan to shutter supervised drug consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and child care centres as well as to not open new ones and limit other harm reduction measures like safe supply and drug decriminalization actually goes against the recommendations of two external reviews it commissioned for its 17 CTS sites as well as the one at Toronto’s South Riverdale Community Health Centre a year ago.

These reports, which were prepared by Unity Health Toronto and completed earlier this year, were launched after 44-year-old Karolina Huebner-Makurat was killed by a stray bullet fired outside of the Leslieville site on July 7, 2023.

One of the reviews recommended keeping this location open as well as implementing better security plans and de-escalation training, while the other called for the overall expansion of supervised consumption services in the province.

Ford said his government is acting on “public consultation,” not just expert advice, when it comes to this newly announced plan.

“How you would feel if I stuck one of these beside your house? You wouldn't like it. Matter of fact, I know you wouldn't like it, neither will your neighbours and neither will anyone else. And they shouldn't be by schools. They shouldn't be by daycares,” he said.

“We're going to put more money in for these HART Hubs that are going to support people the right way, not give them a free place where all the drug dealers live in.”

Ford said he’s received “endless, endless” calls on his phone from people in Leslieville thanking him for imposing the ban on that community’s supervised consumption service, adding his government’s plan is to support people with “issues and addictions….better than ever before.”

“That's what we need to do. There's no place for this,” he said.

Anonymous donors have stepped forward to pay the cost of keeping Sudbury’s supervised drug consumption site open for the month of February. (File photo)

Supervised consumption supporters, meanwhile, are saying that shuttering SCSs will only exacerbate the problem and will achieve the opposite of the intended outcome with people using drugs in parks and other public places more than ever before, not to mention more overdose deaths and drug-related injuries.

“Well, those are just typical scare tactics that these folks have been saying for years and has not worked,” Ford charged.

“It's a failed policy, simple as is that. We're making a better policy: $378 million to help these people, support them, get them help, get them back on their feet, get them a good paying job. That's what we need to do. We don't need to feed them drugs.”

Ford went on to say that his “heart goes out for these folks,” but added that the province won’t be there to give them “safe injection sites and all the drugs that they need.”

He said that the best approach is to “move forward and support them” with detox beds and rehabilitation.

“Mayors across the province are applauding this decision. Communities are applauding it. It's the right decision. We're going to support these people and get them back on their feet,” said Ford.

With files from CTV News Toronto’s Siobhan Morris