Category: Supervised Consumption Services

March 31st 2026

The Honourable Doug Ford, MPP
Premier, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs
Via email: premier@ontario.ca | doug.fordco@pc.ola.org

The Honourable Sylvia Jones, MPP
Deputy Premier, Minister of Health 
Via email: sylvia.jones@ontario.ca | sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org 

The Honourable Vijay Thanigasalam, MPP 
Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions
Via email: vijay.thanigasalam@ontario.ca | vijay.thanigasalam@pc.ola.org

Dear Premier Ford, Minister Jones, and Associate Minister Thanigasalam,

RE: Defunding of all supervised consumption sites in Ontario

On behalf of the organizational signatories below, we urge you to reconsider the decision to defund the last eight provincially-funded supervised consumption sites (SCS) in Ontario. The evidence in support of SCS — provided to you by internal staff and reports as well as recommendations from Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, among others — is unequivocal and validated by decades of research. SCS prevent deaths, injuries, and other negative health impacts disproportionately borne by Ontarians who use drugs; reduce the burden on overtaxed first responders, hospital personnel and social service staff; and reduce both public drug consumption and drug debris.

The eight sites facing June 2026 closure have served 120,997 unique people and reversed 15,402 overdoses while maintaining or improving community safety and providing numerous wraparound services including primary health care. These sites directly provide and/or connect people with addiction and mental health treatment opportunities and have reduced Ontario’s tax burden by millions of dollars annually through the prevention of HIV and hepatitis C transmission. Ontario-wide data following the 2025 SCS closures demonstrate a sharp increase in EMS (+69.5%) and emergency department use (+ 67%) for opioid-related overdoses, as well as an increase of deaths in private residences and outdoor settings.

SCS are an essential part of the ecosystem of community care that includes a wide variety of treatment and supports highly valued by local communities — and not available anywhere else. While HART Hubs offer some supports, they cannot replace SCS and the low-barrier, emergency care they offer when people experience a life-threatening overdose. The intentional exclusion of SCS at HART Hubs as well as the prohibition on needle and syringe distribution creates needless barriers to people accessing broader healthcare and social services. The choice to cut these services represents not only the loss of desperately needed emergency care, but also the fracturing of relationships nurtured between healthcare providers and people who use drugs — relationships that are a pathway to other supports. For example, if someone chooses to pursue abstinence, SCS can support them to connect with abstinence-based care. 

Notably, wait times for publicly-funded withdrawal management services, outpatient services, and residential addiction treatment facilities in Ontario can often be several months long, despite recommendations since 2017 for universal, evidence-based, publicly available, voluntary addiction treatment on demand. Further, the pursuit of abstinence is far from a linear process. Following a course of treatment, the immediately increased risk of life-threatening overdose is well-documented. In Ontario, treatment is also provided in the context of an unregulated industry where anyone can offer services. SCS keep people alive until treatment is available or until they can meet their own goals, including but not limited to abstinence.

Effective law and policy must be grounded in evidence, and shifting funding from SCS elsewhere is not supported by evidence or the public at large. Defunding SCS in Ontario will hurt the most marginalized people in our communities, namely people experiencing homelessness, people living in extreme poverty, and people who consume criminalized drugs. The urgent calls are clear from grieving Ontario residents, people who consume or serve people who consume unregulated drugs, health professionals, community safety experts, and more: SCS are an essential service in need of expansion, not elimination.

There is a formidable wealth of experience and expertise on issues of substance use in Ontario available to policy makers. We encourage and remain open to dialogue. 

We urge a reversal of the decision to defund SCS. 

Signed,

Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
Drug Strategy Network of Ontario
HIV Legal Network
ANCS Sénégal
2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations
2039192 Ontario Inc
A Womb With A View
Aboriginal Legal Services
Access Alliance
Action Hepatitis Canada
Adam Newman MPC
Addiction Services Central Ontario
Addictions and Mental Health Ontario
Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario
Africa Network of People Who Use Drugs (AfricaNPUD)
AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa 
AIDS Bereavement and Resiliency Program Of Ontario (ABRPO)
AIDS Committee Newfoundland & Labrador
AIDS Committee of Durham Region
AIDS Committee of Ottawa
AIDS New Brunswick
AIVL
akzept e.V. Bundesverband für akzeptierende Drogenarbeit und humane Drogenpolitik
Alliance for Healthier Communities
Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa
Amnesty International Canada (ES)
Anglican Diocese of Toronto
Anishnawbe Health Toronto
AQPSUD
ARCH Disability Law Centre 
ArtHouseTO 
Asian Community AIDS Services
Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec
Association for Humane Drug Policy, Norway
Association pour la santé publique du Québec
Awen Consulting Services (International Harm Reduction Capacity Building)
BC Civil Liberties Association
BC-Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
Being Alive/People with AIDS Action Coalition
Blood Ties Four Directions Centre
BOOM Health
Bras outaouais
Breakaway Community Services
Bronx Movil
Butterfly- Asian and Migrant Sex Worker Support Network
CACTUS Montréal
Cambridge council on aging 
Canadian Civil Liberties Association 
Canadian Federation of Mental Health Nurses
Canadian Mental Health Association – Sudbury/Manitoulin
Canadian Mental Health Association – Champlain East
Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario 
CanHepC
Care Through Chaos
Casey House
CASON
CATIE
CAYR Community Connections
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation 
Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation
Centretown Community Health Centre 
Changemark Research + Evaluation
Church of St Stephen-in-the-Fields
Clinique juridique Grand-Nord Legal Clinic
Coderix Medical Clinic
Community Health Project Los Angeles 
Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC)
Comprehensive Treatment Clinic
Comprehensive Treatment Clinic – Community Initiatives
Cornerstone Housing for Women
Cranstoun
CUPE 3903
CUPE 5536
CUPE Local 5399
CUPE Ontario
DAP Health Harm Reduction
Davenport 4 Palestine
Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood and Community Health Centre
Deliberar ORG
DIY Community Health Timmins
Doctors for Safer Drug Policy
Dopamine 
Dr Joel Voth Medicine Professional Corporation
Drug Injecting Services in Canterbury Trust (NZ)
EACH+EVERY: Businesses for Harm Reduction
East Coast Prison Justice Society
East End Community Health Centre
Elementa
Elevate NWO
Elgin-Oxford Legal Clinic
Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario
Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA)
European Network of People who Use Drugs CLG
Evangel Hall Mission
Families for Addiction Recovery (FAR)
Feast Centre for Indigenous STBBI Research
FightBack! KW
Flemingdon Health Centre
Fontbonne Ministries
Forearms of Change Center to Enable community
Fred Victor
Freddie
Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance
George Hull Centre for Children and Families
Gerstein Crisis Centre
Grandmothers Act to Save the Planet (GASP)
Guelph & Wellington Poverty Elimination Collaborative
Guelph Community Health Centre
Harlem United
Harm Reduction Australia 
Harm Reduction Nurses Association / L’association des infirmiers et infirmières en réduction des méfaits
Health Equity Alliance of Nova Scotia
Health Providers Against Poverty
Healthcare for All Coalition 
HealthRIGHT 360
Hepatitis C Elimination Roadmap Ontario
HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO)
HIV Justice Network
Homeless Youth Alliance
HOPS – healthy options project Skopje
House Of Sophrosyne
Housing Works, Inc.
IAVGO Community Legal Clinic 
Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC)
Indigenous Harm Reduction Network
Indonesian Harm Reduction Network
Inner City Family Health Team
Inner City Health and Wellness Program, University of Alberta
instituto RIA
Interfaith Grand River
International Network of People who Use Drugs
International Network on Health, Hepatitis and Substance Use (INHSU)
Into the Outside Mind
IRIS Estrie
Jean Tweed Centre
JM Drama Alumni
John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights
Kensington Health
Kensington-Bellwoods Community Legal Services
Kickstart Medical
Kootenay Insurrection for Safe Supply
LAMP Community Health Centre
Langs Farm Village Association (Langs)
Legal Assistance of Windsor
Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat
Mad Studies Hub York University 
Magpies place volunteer for outreach
Mainline
Maytree
Médecins du Monde Canada – Doctors of the World Canada
Médecins du Monde International Network
META:PHI
Metzineres sccl
Mindful Nurse Gardener Inc. 
Moms Stop the Harm
Mothercraft, Breaking the Cycle
Moyo Health and Community Services
Mozia Women’s Network Society
My Brain My Choice Initiative (Germany)
National Harm Reduction Coalition
National Overdose Response Service
National Right to Housing Network
Native Child and Family Services of Toronto 
Neighbourhood Legal Services
Neighbourhood Legal Services (London & Middlesex) Inc.
Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association 
Nurse 2 Nurse Peer Support
Oasis unité mobile d’intervention
OCRINT
Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy
Ontario AIDS Network
Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering (OPIS)
Ostrowski Medicine Professional Corporation
PACT de rue
PAN 
Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre (PARC)
Parkdale Community Legal Services
Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre
PASAN (Prisoners with HIV/AIDS Support Action Network)
PATH: Peterborough Action for Tiny Homes 
PEERS Alliance
Penticton and Area Overdose Prevention Society (P+OPS)
People’s Health Movement-Canada
Planned Parenthood Toronto
Positive Living Niagara
Pozitive Pathways Community Services
PREKURSOR Foundation
Reach Out Chatham Kent (ROCK)
RECAP
RECLAIM Collective 
Recovery Care
Regent Park Community Health Centre
Regent Park Community Ministry
Regional HIV AIDS Connection
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO)
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, Sudbury & District
Réseau ACCESS Network
Respect Rx Pharmacy
Retired Executives for Social Equity
Rideauwood Addiction and Family Services
Righting Relations Canada
Shelter Health Network
Shelter Housing Justice Network
Skana Family Learning Centre
Skoun, Lebanese Addictions Center 
SLO Bangers Syrunge Exchange and Overdose Prevention Program 
Social Development Centre Waterloo Region
Social Planning Toronto
South African Network of People who Use Drugs
South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario
South Riverdale CHC
St Felix Centre
St. Michael’s Homes
Street Cats YYC
Street Haven
Street Nurses Network
Substance Overdose Prevention and Education Network (SOPEN)
Substance Use Health Network
Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention Society
Sunset Country Family Health Team
The Ally Centre of Cape Breton
The Centre for Psychology and Emotion Regulation 
The Gilbert Centre for Social and Support Services
The Neighbourhood Group Community Services
The Ottawa Mission
The Peterson Foundation
The Seeking Help Project
The Sidewalk Project
Thrive HIV Prevention and Support
Toronto Board of Health
Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance (THRA)
Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction
Toronto Overdose Prevention Society
Toronto’s Drug Checking Service and Ontario’s Drug Checking Community 
Tracking(IN)Justice Project
Unison Health and Community Services
Up North Harm Reduction 
Vibrant Community Health
VIRCAN Care & Research Inc.
Washington Office on Latin America
Waterloo Region Community Legal Services
Waterloo Region Drug Action Team
Welcome Centre Shelter for Women & Families
Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy
West Neighbourhood House
Women and HIV / AIDS Initiative
WoodGreen Community Services
Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy 
Youth RISE
YWCA Toronto

As organizations working to advance policies grounded in human rights and public health, HIV Legal Network and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition strongly condemn the decision by the Government of Alberta to close the last remaining supervised consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge and urge its immediate reversal. If left to proceed, this policy decision will result in needless deaths of loved ones, increased rates of preventable injury and transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C, increased strain on overburdened emergency services, and increased drug consumption and debris in public spaces.

The evidence on these issues has been well-established for decades. We note that the Alberta government is attempting to support its decision with its own flawed six-month study that contradicts the overwhelming evidence demonstrating the harmful impacts on communities when a site closes. In Ontario, supervised consumption site closures have been associated with several harms over the past year, including sharp increases in EMS-treated opioid toxicities (+69.5%)  and in emergency department visits for opioid toxicities (+67%), as well as an increase of deaths in private residences and outdoor settings.

As experts in drug policy, we emphasize that the rate of toxic drug deaths is directly impacted by the composition and volatility of the unregulated drug supply, which is currently outside of the oversight and control of any regulatory body. Shockingly, the Government of Alberta says now is the time to close these sites because overdose deaths have dropped “about 39 per cent” since a peak in 2023. But 602 people lost their lives in only six months in 2025. We are still in the midst of a toxic drug crisis, and supervised consumption sites are crucial to reducing overdose deaths. Eliminating a critical, evidence-based overdose prevention tool defies all logic.  

The supervised consumption site in Calgary alone responded to 475 drug-related events in the first three quarters of 2025. To be clear, these numbers represent lives that would have been lost without the availability of supervised consumption services.  

People who use drugs in Calgary and Lethbridge will lose a lifeline when these sites close in June 2026. Removing access to one of the most evidence-based, proven tools available to reduce preventable drug-related deaths and injuries is a reckless choice with clear consequences: more needless suffering. In the context of the volatile, toxic, unregulated drug supply, supervised consumption services are an essential element of a broader approach that includes access to voluntary, regulated, evidence-based substance use treatment. Increased investments in abstinence-based treatment services do not replace the unique and life-saving service provided by supervised consumption. It is well established that working towards abstinence, for those that choose to do so, is not a linear process. For example, the increased risk of life-threatening overdose following substance use treatment is well-documented. By ensuring the availability of a range of evidence-informed services, including supervised consumption, we are better able to support people and reduce preventable deaths. Harm reduction and access to voluntary treatment services go hand in hand.

We stand in solidarity with people who use drugs and their families, as well as frontline workers who will bear the brunt of harm from this policy decision. We are committed to working with allies in Alberta to advance substance use policy that is grounded in evidence and creates safer, healthier communities for every member of our society, regardless of their relationship to substance use.

The HIV Legal Network and Canadian Drug Policy Coalition call on the Government of Alberta to immediately reverse this decision.

August 7 2024 

The Honourable Sylvia Jones
Ministry of Health
sylvia.jones@ontario.ca | sylvia.jones@pc.ola.org
777 Bay Street, 5th Floor
Toronto, ON M7A 2J3 

The Honourable Michael Tibollo
Ministry of Health
michael.tibollo@ontario.ca | michael.tibollo@pc.ola.org
7 Queen’s Park Crescent
Toronto, ON M7A 1Y7

Dear Minister Jones and Associate Minister Tibollo, 

RE: Supervised Consumption Services site closures due to lack of funding from Ministry of Health

This is a follow up to our letter dated March 4 2024 regarding the need to implement emergency funding for supervised consumption services, to which we have received no response. Ontario’s drug poisoning death rate – now approximately one Ontario resident dying every 2 ½ hours – is dire. 

We reiterate our urgent request that the Ministry of Health provide immediate funding for supervised consumption services (SCS) in Ontario, and to act collaboratively and with transparency to deliver life-saving services for existing and future applications for SCS under the provincial Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) model. We urge the Ontario government to respect the needs of local municipalities, end the deadly and discriminatory delays, and provide relief for emergency responders in establishing evidence-based health and social supports via SCS. 

While treatment and recovery options must be made available to all who wish to access these services, it is paramount that a spectrum of harm reduction services and other health and social supports are immediately scaled up. We remind the government that hundreds of people have died who were not diagnosed with a substance use disorder and would not have been eligible for addiction treatment services. The Ontario government’s ongoing delays further entrenches stigma and discrimination while contributing to needless and preventable deaths, injuries, grief and trauma. 

Tragically, since our previous letter, supervised consumption services sites in Timmins and Sudbury, where applications have been awaiting a response from the province for 16 months (Timmins) and 33 months (Sudbury), have been forced to shut their doors in June 2024 and March 2024 respectively, along with the Windsor site (application submitted 21 months ago) which was forced to shut down in December 2023, leaving an increasing number of local communities without the necessary services to prevent overdose-related death. In Barrie, applicants have been forced to rescind their application submitted two and a half years ago due to the unsustainability of maintaining rental payments for a location without having any confirmation of funding nor timelines from your government. It is unacceptable that the provincial government is acting as the central roadblock in establishing urgently needed life-saving services, despite local support and significant local investment into these services that will all go to waste. 

The 2023 annual report of the Chief Medical Officer of Health recommended that Ontario increase access to harm reduction services, like supervised consumption services, as part of a fulsome response. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the Association of Local Public Health Agencies, and Addictions and Mental Health Ontario are among the many, many organizations urging immediate action establishing new SCS sites. Data shows that there were an estimated 3,812 drug-related deaths in 2023, and an additional 1,842 suspected-drug toxicity deaths in the first six months of 2024. In Timmins, Windsor and Sudbury, the opioid toxicity mortality rate is nearly three times the provincial average. There is a dearth of supervised consumption services in northern Ontario contributing to service inequities between the north and south. 

This crisis has worsened under the current provincial government, with deaths totaling more than 21,000 Ontario residents since 2018. Given the inordinate delays and lack of transparency in providing timely funding for simple, life-saving services, we are concerned about this government’s unwillingness to adequately implement a successful holistic and comprehensive provincial drug strategy. 

We reiterate our calls to: 

1. Immediately provide direct emergency funding to supervised consumption services (SCS) sites that have submitted their Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) applications to the province and have closed due to lack of provincial funding.
2. Urgently provide, improve, and sustain uninterrupted provincial funding for SCS, including inhalation, and ensure equity in regional service availability, particularly in northern communities. 
3. Phase out the Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) approach to funding SCS, which requires additional and overly stringent conditions over and above Health Canada’s requirements. 
4. In the interim, immediately remove the cap on the number of funded SCS sites and the prohibition on inhalation services under the provincial CTS model. 
5. In the interim, introduce transparency and an expedited 30-day timeline for responding to applications under the provincial CTS model. 
6. Introduce a low-barrier process by which community organizations can seek provincial funding for SCS. 
7. Integrate SCS into Ontario’s core funded healthcare system with ongoing, integrated funding and resources. 
8. Meet with us by September 13. 

Signed by, 

DJ Larkin, Executive Director, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition 

Heidi Eisenhauer, Executive Director, Réseau ACCESS Network 

Janet Butler-McPhee & Sandra Ka Hon Chu, Co-Executive Directors, HIV Legal 

Network 

Dr. Julie Samson, Co-Lead of the addiction medicine consult service, Timmins and 

District Hospital 

Michael Brennan, Executive Director, Pozitive Pathways Community Service 

Michael Parkinson, Coordinator, Drug Strategy Network of Ontario