What sites will be closing locally?
In Toronto Centre, the sites at Regent Park Community Health Centre (465 Dundas Street East), Seaton House (339 George Street) and Toronto Public Health’s The Works (277 Victoria Street) will be forced to close. Moss Park Consumption Treatment Services (134 Sherbourne Street) will remain open until the building it occupies is redeveloped, leaving only Street Health (338 Dundas Street East), Fred Victor (139 Jarvis Street) and Casey House (119 Isabella Street, for patients of Casey House only) to provide safe consumption services to the public in the long term.
What will this mean for our communities?
Since Ontario’s Minister of Health Sylvia Jones announced the government’s intention to restrict safe consumption sites last year, I have joined public health colleagues and harm reduction advocates in sounding the alarm on the detrimental impacts the closures will have on our communities.
When the safe consumption sites close, the people who access those services are not suddenly going to stop using drugs. We will see more public activity in our parks, laneways and public washrooms. There will also be impacts on our emergency services. In 2023, Toronto Paramedics responded to 4,514 calls for non-fatal overdoses. When we consider that in 2024, 658 overdoses were responded to at The Works alone, we anticipate the additional pressure safe consumption site closures will put on our first responders. For people who use drugs, safe consumption sites are a critical line of defence against the drug toxicity crisis, a safe space, and with supports, a gateway to recovery. Without them, fatal overdoses will rise, and people will die because of this policy change.
Can safe consumption sites move so that they are not within a 200m radius of a school or child care centre?
In short, no – existing safe consumption sites cannot just choose to relocate a legal distance away from a school or child care centre. Safe consumption sites operate under exemptions to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act from Health Canada. These exemptions are tied to the specific location of the safe consumption site, not to an organization. Moving a safe consumption site would therefore require a new application for a federal exemption. Under the Community Care and Recovery Act, municipalities or local boards are unable to apply to Health Canada for an exemption or renewal of an exemption without the approval of the Minister of Health. While we could, in theory, seek the Minister’s approval to apply for an exemption, Minister Sylvia Jones has gone on record saying that she would not approve any new safe consumption sites in Ontario.
What is being done to combat the Community Care and Recovery Act and mitigate the impact of SCS closures?
As Chair of the Board of Health, I have brought forward motions both to the Board and City Council requesting that the Province continue funding safe consumption sites. The Board of Health also applied for and was granted intervenor status in the upcoming court challenge of the Community Care and Recovery Act led by The Neighbourhood Group, which questions whether the Act is in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada’s Constitution.
Over the past several weeks I have convened meetings with division heads from across the City of Toronto and emergency response agencies to discuss our joint approach to preparing for the closure of safe consumption sites. We will rely heavily on data to monitor trends and inform decisions about resource allocation.
While not a replacement for safe consumption services, Toronto Public Health, with partners, has been approved for a Downtown Homelessness and Addiction Recovery (HART) Hub by the Ministry of Health. More details will be available soon, but the goal of the HART Hub is to bring together a full suite of services for people who use drugs and unhoused people, including Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment, mental health support and primary care.
The closure of these safe consumption sites will be hardest felt here in Toronto Centre. As your local councillor, I will continue to advocate for and urge all levels of government to work together to provide both critical health services and pathways towards treatment and care for those living with addiction.
