The Ford government is planning to push for another one of its controversial bills to fly through the legislative process, with the house leader now planning for the supervised drug consumption site ban to skip committee hearings altogether.
Since returning late for a fall sitting, the government has sped through its law to frustrate new bike lanes, energy legislation and the fall economic statement with shortened debate and public hearings.
Now, Progressive Conservative House Leader Steve Clark has tabled a motion to skip committee hearings altogether on an omnibus law that includes a ban on supervised consumption sites.
He told reporters on Tuesday that bypassing public feedback was justified because the government’s intention to ban sites — and close down a total of 10 across Ontario — had been announced months ago.
“The Minister of Health was very clear in August about our HART hubs, she was very transparent to municipalities that when the house came back, we were prioritizing this as legislation we needed to get passed as a government,” Clark said.
“As early as the middle of August, we telegraphed our intentions.”
Clark was referencing an announcement made by Health Minister Sylvia Jones at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa that supervised drug injection sites would be banned within 2000 metres of a school or child care centre.
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That ban meant 10 of the province’s 19 supervised consumption sites — which were previously opened under the Ford government — are set to close. The province has said repeatedly no new applications either through the federal or provincial government will be approved.
Instead, Ontario will spend roughly $378 million on so-called HART hubs. The money will create 375 intensive addiction recovery beds across the province, something critics have welcomed but suggested will fall well short of demand.
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the government wanted to rush past committee hearings because it didn’t want to hear the effects its policy could have on those using supervised consumption sites.
“This happens again and again with their legislation,” she told reporters.
“They want to get out of here as fast as they can, they don’t want to hear from the people who are actually on the front line and they don’t want to hear from the people who are most impacted.”
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, who said she agreed with the decision to ban the sites near “sensitive places” like schools or day cares, said she still believed the government should hear directly from people about the policy.
“I feel very strongly that the committee, the premier, the government needs to hear from regular people and their experiences,” she said.
Fast-tracking the proposed ban through the legislative process follows a similar template the government has used on other bills.
When he announced he would speed up the passage of the bike lanes removal bill, energy legislation and fall economic statement, Clark said it was due to the short legislative session. Under the government’s own timeline, MPPs rose early in June and returned late in October.
“I’ve been an MPP for 14 years. This is the shortest session that I can remember in recent memory and the government’s got a busy agenda,” Clark said at the start of November.
He refused to be drawn on whether or not he agreed with his predecessor Paul Calandra’s decision to shorten the fall session.
Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner also criticized the move.
“The government, because they’re not making evidence-based decisions, don’t want to defend those decisions — whether it’s bike lanes or consumption treatment sites,” he said.
“They don’t want to hear from the people of Ontario because the government knows that the decisions they’re making are going to harm people and put people’s lives at risk.”
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