Union urges Toronto to keep workers at safe injection site slated to close

The union representing Toronto Public Health employees says the city has issued layoff notices to all workers at the The Works safe injection site with the site set to close next spring due to recent legislation from the Ontario government. 

The safe consumption site at 277 Victoria St. is one of five sites slated to close in the city once the legislation comes into effect next March. 

The layoffs include four permanent community health officer roles and 29 temporary harm reduction counsellors, CUPE Local 79 President Nas Yadollahi said Monday morning. 

"By eliminating these positions, the city is dismantling a critical piece of its public health strategy to address the opioid crisis," Yadollahi said at a news conference. 

"These are the very workers who prevent overdoses, provide essential supports and connect people to the care they need."

Yadollahi said the union is calling on the city to instead redeploy these workers "and allow them to perform duties within what is allowed under provincial law." 

Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government fast-tracked legislation that prohibits and closes any sites within 200 metres of a school or daycare, and effectively stops any new sites from opening. 

The new rules also require municipalities to get the health minister's approval to apply for an exemption from the federal government to launch new supervised consumption sites.

WATCH | Impending closure of consumption sites worries health-care workers, advocates: 

10 supervised drug consumption sites in Ontario set to close by March 2025

17 days ago

Duration 6:42

There is a push to save 10 supervised drug consumption sites in Ontario that are set to be closed because of their close proximity to schools and daycares. Health workers, advocates and users of the sites have warned of a spike in deaths when the sites close by March 31, 2025.

Toronto Centre Coun. Chris Moise, chair of chair of the city's board of health, said the board asked the city to maintain funding for the staff positions in its 2025 budget but that Toronto Public Health had to provide layoff notices under the rules of its collective agreements. 

"It's a procedural process. Because they're unionized employees, we have a collective agreement we have to honour," he said. 

Moise said the city doesn't want to close its safe injection site at 277 Victoria St. but has no other choice. 

"This is not something the city wants to do, but we are governed by provincial and federal laws," he said.

He said the city will try to find jobs for the workers with the City of Toronto. 

Front-line workers fear closures will lead to more deaths 

More than 2,600 Ontarians died last year due to overdoses, the vast majority due to opioid toxicity.

At a board of health meeting Monday, dozens of people spoke about their fears that the supervised injection site closures will have devastating impacts for the community. 

The speakers included Meghan White, a front-line worker at one of the supervised consumption sites slated to close. 

"Working in the site, I've met individuals who bring such an irreplaceable uniqueness to the world," she told the board. 

The new provincial legislation has essentially "handed a death sentence" to the clients she works with on a daily basis amidst an overdose crisis that is claiming lives every day," she said. 

White said she fears the number of overdose deaths will skyrocket once those sites close. 

"The grief felt among the community is going to continue to become unbearable." 

Another frontline harm reduction worker who spoke at the meeting said she's personally lost 24 people to overdoses in recent years, and fears that number will only continue to grow. 

Marina Classen said living through the overdose crisis has felt like living through a war. 

"No one should have to bear the weight of that grief and trauma, but the sad thing is I'm one of so many that carry those experiences now," she said.

Hannah Jensen, spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said each drug consumption site slated to close will have the opportunity to turn into a homelessness and addictions recovery treatment (HART) hub funded by the province. 

In an email, Jensen said the HART hubs will connect people to more comprehensive care than the support services previously provided by supervised consumption sites, including addiction programs, supportive housing and other social services.