Ontario’s overdose prevention sites to stay

TORONTO — A review of Ontario’s overdose-prevention sites has found that they help reduce drugrelated deaths and lower the rate of public drug use, Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday as she announced plans to enhance the program previously criticized by Premier Doug Ford.

Elliott said the Progressive Conservative government will spend just over $31 million a year to fund a maximum of 21 sites, which in addition to overdose prevention will offer drug users treatment and rehabilitation services. “The evidence clearly demonstrated that these sites were necessary,” she told a news conference.

The existing overdose-prevention sites, launched by the previous Liberal government, can apply to continue to operate under the new model planned by the government, which will now be called “Consumption and Treatment” services sites, Elliott said.

“We felt the previous government took some of the steps but really didn’t have that focus on rehabilitation and treatment that we think is necessary for people to be able to get the help that they need,” she said.

Data from Public Health Ontario shows 1,261 people died from an opioid overdose in Ontario last year. That marked an increase from 2016, when 867 people died.

During the spring election campaign, Ford said he was opposed to safe-injection and overdose-prevention sites. The Tory government paused the planned openings of three overdose-prevention sites this summer until it conducted the review, a move that drew strong criticism from harm-prevention workers and many in the medical community.

Elliott said those sites in Thunder Bay, St. Catharines and Toronto, will now be allowed to open.

Gillian Kolla, of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, said the minister has listened to the experts and called the continuation of the program a positive sign. But capping the number of sites in the province to just 21 is a problem, she said.

“We’re in the middle of a very large public-health crisis,” Kolla said. “I think the unfortunate thing about the announcement today is that it seems like it’s a moratorium. It’s basically the existing sites that are currently open in the province plus the three sites that had been approved prior to her pause. Unfortunately, there’s a much greater need within the province.”

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the government review was done as a “re-branding exercise” when the Tories knew the health research all pointed in the same direction.

“It’s clear Mr. Ford was not in favour of these sites,” she said. “It’s clear that the minister responsible has won this battle but it shouldn’t be like this. The evidence was clear all along.”