Toronto, ON | March 31, 2026 \u2013 Today, exactly one year after the Ontario government forced nine Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS, also known as Supervised Consumption Services – SCS) sites to close across the province, over 250 organizations \u2013 led by the HIV Legal Network, the Drug Strategy Network of Ontario, and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition \u2013 have sent a clear message to the Ontario government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5609,"template":"","actualite_type":[8,176],"actualite_sujet":[],"action_combat":[38],"mdm_pays":[],"class_list":["post-5602","actualite","type-actualite","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","actualite_type-national-actions","actualite_type-press-releases","action_combat-precarity"],"acf":{"mise_en_avant":false,"chapeau":"Toronto, ON | March 31, 2026 \u2013 Today, exactly one year after the Ontario government forced nine Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS, also known as Supervised Consumption Services - SCS) sites to close across the province, over 250 organizations \u2013 led by the HIV Legal Network, the Drug Strategy Network of Ontario, and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition \u2013 have sent a clear message to the Ontario government.","cta_type":"aucun","cta_lien":"","contenu":"
Together, they are calling on the government to heed the advice of experts from organizations with unparalleled experience in substance use, to follow the growing body of evidence demonstrating the clear need for SCS, and to commit to keeping individuals and neighbourhoods safer for everyone by reversing the ill-advised decision to eliminate the remaining eight funded SCS in Ontario.<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the province\u2019s claims that the closure of SCS sites last March caused no issues, data presented today at a press conference highlights a troubling trend: Province-wide data<\/a> shows a sharp increase in emergency medical service calls (+69.5%) and emergency department visits (+67%)<\/strong> for opioid-related overdoses in the period following the forced closure of nine SCS in March 2025 under the Community Care and Recovery Act<\/em>. States Dr. Gillian Kolla, from the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University.<\/p>\n In the city of Toronto,<\/strong> calls to emergency medical services for opioid-related toxicities have increased by<\/strong> 82%<\/strong> since the closure of SCS sites, rising from 192 calls in March 2025 to 350 calls per month in January 2026, a sharp increase in line with what experts had warned would occur following the closures, and in stark contrast to the previously declining trend. In Hamilton,<\/strong> where the city\u2019s SCS closed in April 2025, emergency medical service interventions for opioid-related issues rose from 66 in April 2025 to 199 in February 2026, the<\/strong> highest<\/strong> monthly number recorded<\/strong> since data collection began<\/strong>. Taken together, these trends raise serious concerns about the flawed and ultimately inconclusive study by Alberta\u2019s Crown corporation<\/a> recently cited by the Ontario government to justify the closures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\u201cThese trends are disturbing and warrant very close scrutiny by the province\u201d<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe timing and scale of these increases align with concerns raised at the time of the closures to the Ontario government by countless public health experts, including their own internal advisors. The government has an obligation to take these trends seriously and examine the role that the removal of supervised consumption services may have played.\u201d<\/h2>\n