Province to close 5 Toronto supervised drug consumption sites
Sara Jabakhanji | CBC News | Posted: August 20, 2024 5:21 PM | Last Updated: August 20
Facilities won't be able to operate within 200 metres of schools, child-care centres
Five supervised drug consumption sites are slated to close in Toronto after the provincial government announced a ban on such facilities near schools and child-care centres — a move that some harm-reduction experts are slamming as a "deadly mistake."
Health Minister Sylvia Jones made the announcement Tuesday at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa.
"In Toronto, there's been numerous stories of altercations, stabbings, shootings and even a homicide in the vicinity of these sites," Jones said at the conference.
"Our first priority must always be protecting our communities, especially when it comes to some of our most innocent and vulnerable — our children."
The new rules will force consumption and treatment service facilities within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres to close. Supervised consumption sites allow people to use drugs under supervision to reduce the risk of overdose.
While harm-reduction advocates say the move is dangerous, some Toronto residents welcomed the new rules, saying they are needed to address some of the community's concerns.
A total of 10 supervised drug consumption sites in Ontario — five of which are in Toronto — will be shuttered no later than March 31, 2025, the province said in a news release Tuesday.
The other five sites that will be forced to close due to the new rules include one each in Ottawa, Kitchener, Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Guelph.
The closures will apply to four provincially funded consumption sites that include the following locations:
- Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre – 168 Bathurst St.
- Regent Park Community Health Centre – 465 Dundas St. E.
- South Riverdale Community Health Centre – 955 Queen St. E.
- Toronto Public Health – 277 Victoria St.
A fifth supervised consumption site that is self-funded will also close as a result of the ban:
- Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site – 260 Augusta Ave.
Harm-reduction experts slam move as dangerous
Diana Chan McNally, a Toronto community worker and expert in harm reduction, said the province needs to rethink the move, saying the restrictions will only contribute to more deaths.
"This is a deadly mistake," Chan McNally said in an interview ahead of the announcement Tuesday.
"The fact that we are essentially leveraging zoning legislation to shut down life-saving services, arguing that it's in the best interest of children and [the] best interest of safety is actually ludicrous."
Zoë Dodd, a Toronto harm reduction worker, echoed her statements.
"This announcement, it's really serious," she said in an interview with CBC Toronto ahead of the announcement Tuesday. "We're playing politics with people's lives and the result of that will be death."
Dodd said many people in her life have died as a result of the toxic drug supply.
"You cannot treat your way out of that," she said.
Toronto resident says restrictions 'not unreasonable'
But Leslieville resident Jeri Brown welcomed the new rules Tuesday, saying they are desperately needed in communities where the supervised consumption sites are close to schools and playgrounds.
"It's not unreasonable to ask that a service like this be outside of that 200-metre parameter," Brown said.
"There's been an increase of needles around the neighbourhood. There's certainly been a lot of thefts."
The province cited "significantly higher" crime in the vicinity of these sites. In Toronto, reports of assault in 2023 were 113 per cent higher and robbery was 97 per cent higher in neighbourhoods near these sites compared to the rest of the city, according to the release.
"This has never been about, like, 'NIMBY it out of here'. This is a lack of oversight and a lack of running this program and the service properly or in the right location," Brown said.
Chow concerned with closure of services
The press secretary for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow's office said she is concerned the closure of existing harm reduction services "will have significant consequences, such as increased overdose deaths, greater strain on first responders and emergency rooms and more public drug consumption.
"Any change to evidence-based harm reduction programs should be made in consultation with Toronto Public Health," Arianne Robinson said in a statement Tuesday after the announcement.
The province said it will introduce more addiction recovery supports and new treatment hubs as part of the new set of changes.
It will also table legislation in the fall that would prohibit municipalities or organizations from launching new consumption sites or participating in the federal government's safer supply program, which sees prescription medication given to people instead of drugs bought off the street.
The move follows two reviews of the sites that the government ordered in the wake of the killing of a Toronto woman, who was hit by a stray bullet from a shooting near one of the sites.
WATCH | Leslieville residents react to Ontario's safe injection site closures:
Karolina Huebner-Makurat had been walking through the southeast Toronto neighbourhood of Leslieville shortly after noon on July 7, 2023, when she was shot as a fight broke out between three alleged drug dealers.
Restrictions will have adverse effect, advocate says
Chan McNally said she thinks the move will do the opposite of improving safety.
"People aren't going to disappear immediately. They're going to still be in the area," she said.
"So what people are going to see [is] more drug use actually outside and in their communities and it's unfortunate for everybody. We will see lots of people, thousands of people actually dying as a result."
A recent policy paper on opioid use from AMO had the municipalities calling for a more collaborative approach and said that consumption sites save lives.
"A recent study of supervised consumption sites in Toronto found that a city-wide reduction in overdose mortality rate of 42 per cent after the implementation of supervised consumption sites," the association wrote.
In June 2024, Toronto paramedics responded to 355 calls for suspected opioid overdoses across the city, according to an annual report by the South Riverdale Community Health Centre. In 2023, staff at keepSIX, a consumption and treatment service with South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC), reversed 74 overdoses and 517 overdoses at Moss Park.
"Our focus is on ensuring we have a plan in place for providing continued compassionate care to the clients we serve, support for our dedicated staff and dialogue with our neighbours," said Gabriella Skubincan, director of community engagement and communications for SRCHC, one of the sites affected.
WATCH | CBC PEI explains how supervised drug consumption sites work:
In a statement Tuesday, Toronto Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa said Toronto Public Health (TPH) is reviewing the announcement "to fully understand its implications for TPH and Toronto residents."
"Toronto continues to be in the midst of a drug toxicity epidemic. Rates of non-fatal and fatal drug toxicity overdose, including those due to fentanyl, remain high," de Villa said.
"Toronto Public Health has consistently advocated for expanded access to a comprehensive range of evidence-based health services, including prevention, treatment, and harm reduction interventions."
In 2018, the province put in place a cap of 21 such sites in the province but has only funded 17. There are other supervised consumption sites around the province that have received federal approval but no provincial funding, and two of them in northern Ontario recently closed due to a lack of funds.
Asked at an unrelated news conference Tuesday about the new restrictions, Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw said he will look into the province's move.
"I'm going to wait and see the details. It is something that is obviously going to be needing examination by us, and we'll take it under consideration," Demkiw said.