Many of the supervised consumption sites where addicts can safely take drugs to avoid the risk of overdose were approved by the very same government that’s now looking to shut them down amid public safety concerns.
In fact, more than half of the 10 sites announced for closure by Health Minister Sylvia Jones on Tuesday were opened and funded by the Ford government in early 2019 as politicians grappled with a provincial overdose crisis.
Despite opening and funding many of the centres it now plans to close, the government said its new policy was about doing “more to protect public safety.” The policy shift unveiled Tuesday means supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools or child-care facilities must close by next March.
The policy has been criticized by proponents of the facilities, which they say have saved countless lives from fatal overdoses that have become more common with an increasingly contaminated drug supply.
“It took a ton of work for those communities to put the proposals together to the government to finally get funding for the supervised consumption sites — it took a ton of work,” NDP health critic France Gélinas told Global News.
“The government did fund them, and now it’s a complete 180 that I can’t help but think is based on stigma, not a body of evidence.”
A spokesperson for the Minister of Health told Global News that crime had risen around supervised consumption sites and that the change would protect the “most vulnerable” people in Ontario, namely children.
When the sites were opened in 2019, the application process included extra measures for those located near schools and child-care centres, which needed to declare their proximity when they applied.
“Communities, parents and families across Ontario have made it clear that the presence of drug consumption sites near schools and daycares is leading to serious safety problems. We agree,” the spokesperson said. ”
“Open, taxpayer funded drug consumption should not be happening on the same block as schools and daycares.”
Former health minister leads introduction of new sites
In October 2018, shortly after the Ford government took office, then-health minister Christine Elliott unveiled the findings of a review of supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites.
The review, according to the government, summed up the expert views of health-care professionals, police, municipal leaders, site operators and people with lived experiences, and leaned on scientific research examining the experiences of other jurisdictions.
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To inform the report Elliott also visited several safe consumption sites and toured neighbourhoods to get a better feel for the impact of the facilities on the surrounding community and businesses.
The report found that while there are “divided opinions” on the connection between a consumption site and a rise in crime, drug trafficking and public disorder, the data and evidence suggested a “reduction in illness and death from overdoses” in areas where a supervised site existed.
“Evidence and feedback suggest that Supervised Consumption Services improve the health of those who use drugs, are cost-effective and reduce the strain on the health care system,” the government found in 2018.
The study also said there were “inadequate addictions treatment, mental health services and supportive housing options available for individuals using drugs,” but that safe injection sites are needed to help addicts wean themselves off.
To bridge the gap, the government announced it would refocus the program to help addicts connect the primary care, treatment, rehab and other health-related social services.
Strict location rules already in place
As part of its early-mandate response to supervised consumption sites, the Ford government also set out the parameters for where new locations could be located and which services they must include.
“Organizations would need to apply to provide treatment and rehabilitation services, and would also need to offer connections to health and social services, including primary care, mental health supports, housing, and employment,” a 2018 news release said.
The government’s consumption and treatment services application laid out strict requirements:
- Supervised consumption and overdose prevention services
- Pathways to addiction, mental health, primary care, housing and other social services.
- Harm reduction, first aid, needle disposal education along with distribution of Naloxone and oxygen.
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The requirements, those with knowledge of the situation said, limited municipalities to a handful of sites that could offer all the necessary wraparound services, most of which would have been located at the heart of communities.
The process also put emphasis on the location of child-care centres and schools in 2018, telling applicants near either space to carefully lay out how they planned to limit the impacts of supervised consumption sites.
As part of the application process, municipalities were told to outline the site’s “proximity to licensed child care centres, parks and schools.”
“If the proposed site is within close proximity (e.g. 100m – 200m) to any of these, the applicant must specify how community concerns will be addressed through community consultation and through ongoing community engagement,” it said.
Sites opened and funded in 2019
The application process opened in January 2019 and by March of that year, the province felt comfortable enough to fund more than a dozen sites with high instances of surrounding drug use.
“The Government of Ontario is putting people and communities first, and has reviewed all Consumption and Treatment Services applications and approved 15 sites in areas with the greatest need,” a news release at the time said.
Among them was the Ottawa Inner City Health consumption and treatment site which received $2 million in provincial funding which, the government said, would “allow the site to move its current operations from a trailer to a permanent location.”
Other sites also received similar operation funding for supplies, salaries and administrative costs.
Five years later, however, the rug was pulled out from under many of those sites. Seven of the 10 sites slated to close by March 2025 under the government’s new rules were opened in March 2019 by the same administration.
Sites in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Guelph and Thunder Bay are all set to close down next year, almost exactly six years after the government told them they could open, because they fall foul of Ontario’s new ban on sites within 200 metres of schools or child-care centres.
Speaking on Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he felt the promise of the sites had failed — contrary to reports posted on the government’s website.
“This was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread — it is the worst thing that could ever happen to the community to have one of these safe injection sites in their neighbourhood,” Ford said.
The government’s decision to close the sites goes against two reports it commissioned that recommended keeping existing drug consumption sites open, increasing funding to help stabilize staffing and hiring permanent security guards to increase safety.