On supervised drug sites, Doug Ford must decide quickly

We could have begun saving lives by the end of this year.

A medically supervised drug consumption site in downtown Kitchener could have been approved, renovated and staffed by January 2019.

It would have been ready to work with people with addictions. People who either need a safe place to take their illegal drugs, or who are ready to accept help turning away from them.

One person dies approximately every four days in Waterloo Region from a drug overdose, often contaminated with deadly fentanyl. This proposed site would have offered a safe alternative.

But instead of moving ahead with the plan to save lives, we’re on hold. Waiting for Premier Doug Ford to come on the line.

Waterloo regional council decided last week to hold off on public consultations for two possible sites in Kitchener and two more in Cambridge. That’s because the province is not approving new sites until a review has been completed this fall.

It strains credulity that the newly elected Conservative government claims to still be figuring out whether supervised drug consumption sites are a good thing or a bad thing.

They’ve been out of power since the Liberals took over at Queen’s Park in 2003. They’ve had 15 long years in opposition to figure out what they think.

Yet Ford continues to send mixed signals as he mulls over the decision of whether to continue support of these sites, or to pull the plug on them.

On one hand, he said during the spring election campaign: "I don't believe in safe-injection areas, as I call them. I believe in supporting people, getting them help.

"I ask anyone out there, if your son, daughter or loved one ever had an addiction, would you want them to go in a little area and do more drugs? I'm dead against that."

He added he would do everything he could to fight the ongoing opioid crisis, but his promise to spend $1.9 billion on mental health and addictions didn’t offer enough detail.

Meanwhile, Ontario’s health minister, Christine Elliott, says there will be a comprehensive review of drug consumption sites, including the objections of people who live nearby. It will be finished by the end of September.

In the meantime, there’s a glimmer of hope: A temporary drug overdose prevention site in London received an extension to continue operating while the review is underway.

Elliott said that clinic, approved by the previous Liberal government, is “being very well used and is doing some very good work.

“We want to make sure that all Ontarians who need help receive that help,” she said. Municipalities are in a bind. They need both money and permission from the provincial government to set up the drug consumption sites.

The province pays the expenses of these places, because it’s a form of health care.

But even if the municipality decided to run the site on its own dime — something I can see happening in Waterloo Region — provincial approval is also needed for one of these sites to operate.

That’s because the federal government requires a letter of verification from the province before it will agree to exempt the drug consumption site from the Criminal Code so that people who go to the site won’t be charged with drug possession.

Perhaps the rules will change. But until they do, there is no reason for any regional or city councillor to push ahead with heated neighbourhood meetings. They’ll get people angry and frightened, and for what?

So we all wait for Ford to decide. And while we wait, our sons and daughters keep dying.