Ontario pulls funding for seven supervised drug consumption sites

TORONTO — The Ontario government confirmed Monday it is cutting provincial funding for seven supervised drug consumption sites, days after harm reduction advocates said they were notified of the decision.

The province said it will initiate a 90-day wind-down period to give those using the sites time to transition to the government’s abstinence-based model — homelessness and addiction recovery treatment, or HART, hubs.

It said the move affects two sites in Toronto, two in Ottawa and one each in Niagara, Peterborough and London, with Health Minister Sylvia Jones saying in a statement that the government is “focused on treatment, recovery and safer communities.”

Health-care workers, advocates and homeless people have all said consumption site closures would lead to more deaths.

Premier Doug Ford defended the decision Monday, claiming that unlike HART hubs, consumption sites “encourage” drug use.

“I don’t want to hurt these people. I want to help them. I want them to be productive,” Ford said at an unrelated press conference in Brockville, Ont.

“I don’t believe in sticking these injection sites in the middle of the community, down the street from a school, needles are all over the place. It’s like giving an alcoholic a card for the LCBO and saying, ‘OK go in there and go to town.'”

A letter from the Ministry of Health to the Fred Victor Centre, one of the two Toronto sites, said its provincial funding for consumption and treatment services would end as of June 13.

The centre is “deeply disappointed” by the government’s decision to end funding for remaining supervised consumption sites, its CEO said Friday.

Keith Hambly said in a statement that the services the sites provide “save lives and connect vulnerable people to essential health and social services.”

Lakelands Public Health said in a press release Monday that its supervised consumption site in Peterborough, Ont., is expected to close as funding ends.

“Programs that provide harm reduction services and pathways to treatment are an important part of a comprehensive public health approach to addressing substance use and the ongoing drug poisoning crisis,” the health agency said.

It said that between January 2023 and August 2024, Peterborough’s supervised consumption site recorded more than 15,000 visits and successfully managed 104 drug poisonings without a single fatality.

“Continuity of services that support people who use substances is an important component of protecting community health, particularly at a time when many communities continue to experience the impacts of the toxic drug supply,” the health agency said.

It added it would “collaborate with local drug strategies” to assess the move’s impact and support those affected.

In 2024, Ford’s government banned consumption sites within 200 metres of a school or daycare, targeting 10 sites across the province for closure by the end of March 2025. Most of those sites chose to convert to the province’s abstinence-based model and closed.

The government has also banned new consumption sites from opening altogether as it moves away from harm reduction to an abstinence-based model. The letter sent to Fred Victor Centre notes the province will spend nearly $550 million to open HART hubs across Ontario.

Robin Lennox, a family doctor and the NDP’s primary care critic, called the move to defund consumption sites “deadly and irresponsible,” saying that it will make communities less safe.

“These sites provide a safe and monitored space for people using substances. Removing them means we will see more drug use and overdoses occurring in public spaces,” she said in a statement Monday.

“Let me be perfectly clear: this will not make Ontario’s toxic drug crisis disappear, it will only make things worse.”

Janet Butler-McPhee, co-executive director of the HIV Legal Network, has called the province’s decision to pull funding a “cowardly move” that will put lives at risk.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has also denounced the move, saying in a press release Friday that it “strongly condemns” the decision to defund consumption sites, calling it “misguided.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2026.

Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press