Ontario’s Ford Defends Consumption Site Closures, Calls Facilities the ‘Worst Thing’ to Happen to Communities

Premier Doug Ford is defending his government’s decision to close nearly half of Ontario’s 23 supervised drug consumption facilities, calling them “the worst thing that could ever happen to a community.”
“Giving someone, an addict, a place to do their injections—we haven’t seen it get better. This was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s the worst thing that could ever happen to a community to have one of these safe injection sites in their neighbourhood.”
Five sites will shut down in Toronto, as well as one each in Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa, and Thunder Bay. Nine of those sites are provincially funded and will be eligible to receive funding under HART Hubs, a new $378 million homeless and addiction program that the province says will prioritize community safety, treatment, and recovery. The sites must give up supervised consumption services to receive funding under the new system.
The changes come despite two provincially funded reports recommending existing drug consumption sites remain open. While the authors back the sites as an effective way to prevent overdose deaths, the Ontario government maintains that the studies failed to take into account public concerns about the sites.
Ford said his government’s decision is based on “public consultation,” not just expert advice.
“I’ve been getting endless phone calls about needles being in the parks, needles being by the schools, and by the daycares,” he said. “That’s unacceptable.”
When pressed by a reporter about ignoring the expert recommendations, Ford’s response was curt.
Run by Health Canada, safer supply services do not focus on addiction treatment but on helping drug users to be “less reliant on the toxic illegal drug supply” while also providing connections to health and social services “where possible and appropriate,” according to the government website.
Ford said government funding should be used for treatment and detox beds, not to give addicts “free drugs.” He said many of those using safer supply programs to access drugs are selling them on the street so they can buy stronger drugs like fentanyl.
“As far as I’m concerned the federal government is the biggest drug dealer in the entire country. It’s unacceptable, it needs to stop,” Ford said.
“It’s a failed policy, simple as that. We’re making a better policy: $378 million to help these people, support them, get them help, get them back on their feet, get them a good paying job. That’s what we need to do. We don’t need to feed them drugs.”
The Epoch Times contacted Health Canada for comment, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Federal Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks has previously described supervised consumption sites as “lifesaving.”
She added that as of October 2023, more than 53,000 overdoses have been responded to in supervised consumption sites across Canada.
The latest numbers represent a 6 percent increase from the same period in 2021 and 53 percent increase from the same period in 2019.
There were also 538 confirmed stimulant-related deaths and 2,645 probable and confirmed opioid-related deaths in 2023, the coroner’s report said.
The report identified three key drivers of the crisis as the stigma of accessing treatment, worsened mental health caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increase of illegal drugs laced with dangerous substances.