experts call on ontario to reverse plans to close supervised drug sites
3 minute read
the supervised drug consumption site at the somerset west community health centre was the first across canada that was forced to close last year.
tony caldwell
/
ottawa citizen
one year after the ontario government closed nine supervised consumption sites, parts of ottawa’s somerset ward have become a cautionary tale for what other parts of the province can expect, ward coun. ariel troster warns.
the supervised consumption site at the somerset west community health centre was the first across canada that was forced to close, troster said. since then, there have been more open drug use, more overdoses, more calls for police and paramedics and more chaos in the community, she said.
“i can only speak for my community’s experience, but let this be a warning to you,” troster told a march 31 news conference organized by groups calling on the ontario government to reverse its decision to close the province’s seven remaining supervised consumption sites by june, two of them in ottawa.
the somerset west community health centre site was closed based, in part, on what troster said was faulty data from the province claiming crime in the area had spiked since the site opened. it was also among the sites closed because of proximity to schools and daycares.
a 2025 file photo of somerset ward coun. ariel troster.
tony caldwell
/
ottawa citizen/postmedia
“i really want to challenge the idea that closing supervised consumption sites makes neighbourhoods safer. it has actually made my neighbourhood a lot less safe. it has brought public drug use closer to children and families,” troster said.
during the news conference, experts pushed back against the provincial plan to close the remaining seven sites in ontario and to significantly reduce other forms of harm reduction. more than 250 organizations, led by the hiv legal network, the drug strategy network of ontario and the canadian drug policy coalition, are calling on the province to reverse that decision, saying mounting evidence supports the need for supervised consumption sites and the importance of harm reduction.
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since those nine sites were closed across the province one year ago, emergency calls and emergency department visits for opioid related overdoses have sharply increased around ontario, said gillian kolla, a public health researcher with the faculty of medicine at memorial university in st. john’s, n.l. emergency medical service calls for opioid-related overdoses increased by 69.5 per cent, and emergency department visits related to opioid overdoses increased by 67 per cent in the months following the closure of the sites.
a file photo of gillian kolla, a public health researcher with the faculty of medicine at memorial university in st. john’s, n.l.
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“the timing and magnitude of these increases are consistent with concerns that were raised at the time of the closures … by various public health experts, including their own internal advisers,” kolla said. “these trends are troubling and warrant very careful scrutiny by the province.”
experts also said ontario’s policy of defunding supervised consumption sites would remove a key hiv prevention measure at a time when new cases of hiv are on the rise in canada after a period of decline.
somerset west and other locations that are now overseeing hart (homeless and addictions recovery treatment) hubs can no longer offer any forms of harm reduction, including needle exchanges, raising the risk of spread of blood-borne illnesses.
the province is promoting a recovery model through the hart hubs while closing supervised consumption sites. advocates say the province needs both — but some noted that people were still being put on waiting lists for treatment, even with hart hubs, and that whatever treatment was eventually made available generally was not suited to the homeless population without supported housing.
kolla and others said the ford government ignored a decade of research, including the government’s own research, showing supervised consumption sites were safe and effective and did not lead to increased crime or mortality.
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rob boyd, who heads ottawa’s inner city health, which runs the trailer supervised consumption site at the shepherd’s of good hope, said it did not see an uptick in clients after somerset west closed, which suggested that its former clients were now consuming drugs in public or in hidden areas in the community near somerset west rather than travelling across the community.
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