TORONTO -- Two Ontario government-commissioned reports recommended keeping existing drug consumption sites open, increasing funding to help stabilize staffing and hiring permanent security guards to increase safety.
But Health Minister Sylvia Jones decided against those recommendations, announcing this week that the government would ban supervised consumption sites near schools and prohibit new ones from opening in the future.
The province is instead shifting to a treatment-focused model as it moves away from supervised consumption, and the new rules will mean the closure of 10 such sites across Ontario.
The changes came after the province initiated several reviews of its 17 consumption and treatment service sites following the killing of a bystander near a Toronto site.
Karolina Huebner-Makurat had been walking through her southeast Toronto neighbourhood of Leslieville shortly after noon on July 7, 2023, when she was shot as a fight broke out between three alleged drug dealers.
Two reviews released by the province this week suggest a number of ways to improve community safety in the sites, but Jones cited higher crime rates and concerns from neighbours and parents as a reason to do away with supervised consumption sites near schools.
This report by was first published Aug. 21, 2024.