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Legal advocates, front-line workers, harm reductionists and parents spoke out against the closure of safe injection sites on Monday.
The bill that will close 10 of Ontario’s 23 supervised drug consumption sites was also tabled on Monday, but first announced by the provincial government in August.
“As somebody who’s been working in the overdose crisis for over a decade, we have seen people die,” said Zoë Dodd at a press conference today sponsored by MPP Kristyn Wong Tam. “We’ve seen people dead outside, overdoses in the bathrooms, overdosing on the street, and that is exactly what’s going to happen when these sites close.” Dodd is a member of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society.
Dodd pointed to the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of the Solicitor General, and the general public to “understand that this is an overreach of government power.”
“These are political footballs with people’s lives, and these cuts are going to kill people,” she said.
Of the sites set to shut down at the end of March 2025, five are located in Toronto. These, Dodd said, are the highest occupancy, and without them people will be forced to visit other sites that may be inaccessible or lead to overcrowding.
As an alternative to safe consumption sites, the provincial government is trying a new strategy: the addition of 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs.
The HART Hubs will cost $378 million according to a provincial government press release from August where it also describes that the province wants to focus on “treatment and recovery” as well as prevention.
However, advocates at the press conference said that safe consumption sites were offering the same services these hubs are meant to accomplish, but more. The HART hubs will not offer supervised consumption or needle exchange programs. Current sites take in used needles to be disposed of as medical waste, and without these exchange programs, advocates say these needles will instead be discarded in parks or on the street.
Supervised consumption sites in Ontario have reversed over 20,000 overdoses in the last four years according to the Government of Canada. With no supervision, Dodd said we will see a situation where paramedics, police and firefighters are responding to overdose calls, taking them away from other duties.
“They are gonna be going to all those thousands of overdoses that were reversed inside supervised consumption sites. It’s not stopping people from using drugs, so people are gonna be elsewhere.”
At the press conference today, Suzanne Fish, a member of the Leslieville Harm Reduction Coalition, called upon MPP’s to reject the bill. “We need safe consumption sites. I urge you to keep them open. They’re a part of a safe and caring world that we give to our children.”
Fish said the benefits of these safe consumption sites have been proven, and “there has been no discernible negative impact on the public safety and health objectives of Canada.”
“Community safety is upheld when all people have access to life saving health care, when people are not vilified for their drug use, and when human rights are upheld.”
Sierra is a Toronto-based reporter for On The Record.
