EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published on The Trilla new Village Media website dedicated to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.

The Conservative government has introduced legislation that will force the closure of 10 of Ontario’s 17 supervised drug consumption sites and prevent municipalities from seeking permission from the federal government to open new ones.

It follows months of warnings from public health workers, drug users, religious leaders and public sector unions that it would lead to an increase in opioid-related deaths and public drug use.

“There will be no more safe injection sites in the province of Ontario under our government,” Health Minister Sylvia Jones said at a press conference shortly after the bill was tabled. Bill 223, the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act.

The omnibus bill contains several new “public safety” policies, one of which is the promised ban on supervised consumption (SCS) within 200 meters of a school or daycare, which will force the closure of five facilities in Toronto and five others located in Toronto. Ottawa, Kitchener, Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Guelph.

The Conservatives are also ensuring that municipalities and public health units cannot circumvent the de facto ban on new SCSs by asking the federal government for permission to open one and operate it without provincial funding. Bill 223 requires cities to first seek permission from the province before making such requests.

“We don’t want them to go around and get federal approval for something that we vehemently disagree with,” said Jones, who added that “there is no circumstance” where she would grant such authorisation.

Since SCS’s closure was announced in August, numerous organizations have come to Queen’s Park, begging the province to reconsider its decision, arguing that by closing the sites, addicts would simply use more drugs in public, where they would not ‘would have no one to watch them. instruct them to use naloxone to reverse a potentially fatal overdose.

“Why doesn’t the government want us to be safe? Don’t we matter? We are people too. Please reconsider this announcement, you are killing us,” Jennifer Haier said , a client of the Kensington Market overdose prevention site, to reporters at the Kensington Market Legislature. September.

An intern Ministry of Health Impact Assessment obtained by Global News Earlier this month, echoed those concerns, warning the government that closing SCS could negatively impact people who already experience “disproportionately higher rates of opioid-related deaths,” and would not solve the problem of discarded needles and crack pipes that conservatives have often cited to justify closures.

“There is an associated risk that the closure of supervised consumption sites will make drug use and drug paraphernalia more dispersed and visible in the community,” the impact assessment notes.

When asked why the government is ignoring its own findings – as it did earlier this year when it rejected recommendations supporting SCS during a province-wide review he had ordered in 2023 – Jones said the government was instead listening to ordinary Ontarians.

“We listen to parents, we listen to individuals who have to deal with this on a daily basis,” he said. “We have a lot of information that we use, provide and evaluate.”

The government plans to replace SCS with its new Homeless and Substance Abuse Treatment (HART) centers, which Jones said will be open by March 2025.

When asked if SCS would be allowed to remain open if HART hubs were delayed for any reason, Jones did not respond.

Asked if she would guarantee there would be no increase in opioid-related deaths this time next year, she said at that point the province “will be in measure to evaluate the effectiveness” of HART centers.

Bill 223 also contains several other policies.

It prohibits registered sex offenders from legally changing their names, requires them to hand over their emails and social media usernames to police and requires them to notify police before traveling outside Canada. `

It also cracks down on the practice of “revinning” stolen cars, an initiative of Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand. called all the provinces to take more seriously last month. The bill makes it a crime to knowingly submit or use a false vehicle identification number, thereby increasing fees for each subsequent violation.

Bill 223:

• bans advertising of black market cannabis;
• exempts terrorism offenses from the two-year statute of limitations for civil prosecution;
• proclaims November Community Safety and Crime Prevention Month;
• allows the solicitor general to grant more police awards;
• gives police chiefs the ability to request temporary assistance from the Ontario Provincial Police; And
• allows the adoption of new regulations allowing retired judges to work more part-time.