The Ford government has confirmed that nine of the 10 supervised consumption sites it will force to close by March have been greenlit to transition into intensive addiction recovery hubs.
The Ministry of Health announced Thursday that drug injection sites in locations including Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay will all be given funding to switch from supervised consumption to rehabilitation facilities.
The transition is necessary because of Ontario’s summer announcement that 10 supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres would be ordered to close by March 31.
The move came with other measures that effectively ban the sites from moving or new facilities from opening.
“We are taking the next step in our plan to keep communities safe while improving access to mental health and addictions services,” Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said in a statement.
Announcing the closures in the summer, the government unveiled $378 million to create 19 so-called HART Hubs, which will focus on addiction recovery and treatment but not allow any drug consumption.
The money is set to fund 19 hubs over four years and should create roughly 375 highly supportive beds for people struggling with homelessness and addiction. Nine of the 19 hubs will be former supervised injection sites, while more than 80 non-profits have expressed interest in hosting the remaining 10 sites.
The nine supervised consumption sites that will transition into addiction hubs will be run by:
Get weekly health news
- Guelph Community Health Centre
- Toronto Public Health
- Parkdale Queen West (Toronto)
- Regent Park (Toronto)
- South Riverdale Community Health Centre (Toronto)
- Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre
- Norwest Community Health Centre (Thunder Bay)
- Somerset West Community Health Centre (Ottawa)
- Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo
The only supervised consumption site slated for closure that has not yet been confirmed as a future Hart Hub is the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site. It is not government-funded, unlike the other nine, and is engaged in a legal challenge to the government’s decision to shutter its site.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said Thursday’s announcement only related to the nine publicly funded sites and that a further 10 sites would still be confirmed. They did not say if the Kensington Market site had applied or if it had been successful.
“I cannot comment on an ongoing application review process,” the spokesperson said.
“As stated in the news release, the review for the remaining 10 HART Hubs is ongoing and they will be announced in the coming weeks. All applicants will be evaluated on the same criteria and their ability to meet the needs of the communities they serve.”
The government said it expects to see the nine publicly funded sites transition from supervised injection into HART hubs before the March 31 deadline, when the injection portion of their operations will end.
The Progressive Conservatives recently fast-tracked legislation banning supervised consumption sites from operating within 200 metres of a school or daycare.
The law, which passed last month, also requires municipalities to get the health minister’s approval before seeking a federal exemption to launch new supervised consumption sites, something Jones has said she would not approve.
The move — favouring addiction supports instead of safer settings for people taking drugs to reduce overdoses — is one the government said will help people break the cycle of addiction and homelessness.
“The new HART Hubs will give people struggling with addiction the support and treatment services they need to achieve lasting recovery,” Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo said in a statement.
The move, however, has been sharply criticized by many advocacy groups who all say taking away supervised settings for people to inject illegal drugs will lead to more overdoses and more deaths.
In her annual report, the auditor general found the supervised injection sites set to close had prevented 1,579 fatal overdoses in the 2022-23 year. Even an internal government analysis predicted a “high risk” the law would lead to “increased emergency department visits, health impacts, overdose and death.”
When she initially unveiled the law, Jones batted away the idea the policy would lead to fatalities.
“People are not going to die, they’re going to get access to service,” she said in August 2024. “I do not call watching someone inject an illicit drug to be health care in the province of Ontario. We need to do better and we can do better.”
The remaining 10 HART Hub locations are expected to be announced before the March 31 deadline for 10 supervised injection sites to close.
–with files from The Canadian Press