Ontario has a new supervised consumption site. Funding leaves its future in limbo

Jasmine Flynn grew up in a house where both her parents struggled with addiction before her mother eventually passed away after a fentanyl overdose in 2021.

Flynn said she has her “own lived experience with homeless and drug use and street life culture” but is currently in a good place, at home with her own children and working as a peer harm reduction worker in Peel Region.

She’s one of many involved in front-line harm reduction working to promote what they believe could be a lifeline for many in the area’s three municipalities: a supervised consumption site located inside the Region of Peel’s headquarters.

“I think that these sites are extremely important because, with the opioid crisis and especially fentanyl, a lot of people are using in isolation which is leading to fatalities,” she told Global News.

“(At) these sites people will receive help immediately if they go down or if there’s any issues like that.”

The space will be funded for two years by local property taxpayers and operate in the same building as local council meetings and other services.

The premise is simple: create a space where people can use illegal drugs they have bought with medical staff on hand in case the supply is toxic.

The site also doubles as an opportunity for outreach, offering links to permanent housing, addiction support and even medical staff to deal with injuries at the same location.

“The primary goal and function is making sure that people aren’t using alone and that they’re not at risk of dying from complications to the poisoned drug supply,” said Adam Chalcraft, harm reduction manager at Moyo, the group helping to run the site.

“We’re also able to provide drug testing on-site so people are able to see what’s in their supply before they use… These sites are very effective at keeping people alive.”

It’s been a long journey for the Region of Peel to get here, opening the doors of its supervised consumption site, located below the chambers where local councillors meet every two weeks. The idea was kindled more than 10 years ago as opioid overdoses began a terrifying upward surge.

Between 2013 and 2019, the number of opioid overdose deaths in the Region of Peel rose 400 per cent.

“Our trend really mimicked the rest of the province,” Dr. Kate Bingham, the Region of Peel’s acting medical officer of health, told Global News.

Plans were drawn up for a safe consumption site in 2019 and then paused when the pandemic hit. In 2021, Peel saw a record-setting 186 deaths from overdoses and plans started again in earnest.

In early March 2024, after a fruitless search for other locations and some community pushback, a site was opened at the Region of Peel’s Bramalea-based head office in Brampton.

“We certainly are one of the health units who’s been impacted significantly by the opioid toxicity crisis that is later to opening this kind of site,” Bingham said. “It’s been called for by the community and people who use drugs for quite some time. I think everyone is glad that it is beginning here.”

Those involved admit the location isn’t perfect but are thankful they have a space at all, pointing to benefits like the ability to co-locate key services at the Region of Peel’s head office.

“There was some hesitancy at first, and certainly it may not be a perfect fit for everyone,” Bingham said.

Chalcraft from Moyo said he was delighted a location had finally been found. The Bramalea area where Peel has its headquarters has been flagged by paramedics as one of the region’s problem areas for overdoses.

“We’re really happy that the region was willing to welcome us into one of their buildings, Chalcraft said. “And that site was also identified as one of the major areas where overdoses were happening by EMS.”

According to Flynn, other locations in the Region of Peel had been identified as preferable to people who use drugs but local pushback made them impossible.

“Downtown Brampton was definitely a huge hotspot and would have been a great location but there was a lot of community pushback from that end, and then also a lot of businesses just didn’t want to have this certain site in their area,” she said.

“This was basically one of the only options they could get… I think the need for having the site was more important than the location at this point.”

The site is something of a test as local officials cobble together a response as quickly as they can.

For two years, the supervised consumption site will be funded by local property taxpayers and allowed to operate through an exemption granted by the federal government. After that, its future is unclear.

“This is a model that has been used in a number of other municipalities,” Bingham said.

“The intent of urgent public needs health sites is really to bridge to achieving a more sustained funding model… (the region will) provide funding for up to 24 months under the expectation that sustainable funding is sought.”

At the provincial level, however, the Ford government has put a freeze on its support for supervised consumption sites.

An ongoing review by the Ministry of Health of the entire program was launched after a Toronto mother was killed in a shooting that took place near a safe consumption site in Leslieville, an incident some in the community linked to the site itself.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health told Global News Peel Region’s site was not provincially approved or funded, though its route via a federal exception was permitted.

The results of the overall review by the province are not clear but Bingham said she is hopeful they will get clarity soon and that the province will be open to offering the region full-time support for the site.

“We haven’t heard anything to suggest that part of the review would be to cease funding to the sites but I wouldn’t want to speak for the province,” she said. “We’re hopeful that the review will conclude soon and we can understand the impacts it might have on the future of provincial funding.”

When the two years of local funding expires, in early 2026, the future of Peel’s new supervised consumption site will hang in the balance.

Flynn said the very fact the site has been launched is a vital first step in helping people who use drugs in the region.

“This is a community that has been completely shunned and isolated and treated with zero dignity or respect,” she said. “So even having a site like this, especially having staff on site that are genuinely caring to what’s going on, can make a huge difference.”

She said the next two years will “show statistically, the need on paper” for a safe consumption site.

“There’s really no way to go against that proof,” she said.

The province, however, is making no promises.

“This site has never been a provincially-approved CTS site,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health told Global News. “Given the cap on sites, it would not be considered for provincial approval.”