Ford’s government forced the closure<\/a> of nine other such sites that it deemed too close to schools and daycares.<\/p>\nWhat has happened since then is worrying, said Gillian Kolla, a public health researcher and assistant professor at the faculty of medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has received funding from the federal government to study the effect of the changes in Ontario’s harm reduction service delivery in the next four years.<\/p>\n
The number of suspected drug toxicities treated by emergency medical services across Ontario jumped from 604 in the first quarter of 2025 to 1,024 in the third, according to data collected by Ontario Drug Policy Research Network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Toronto, paramedics received 387 non-fatal suspected opioid overdose calls in March, more than double the number of calls they received in March last year, the month before the sites’ closure, the data show.<\/p>\n
In Hamilton, where the only supervised injection site was closed in 2025, paramedics responded to 199 overdose calls in February of this year, the highest-ever\u00a0monthly count recorded since the city started collecting such data.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | What’s the fallout from consumption site closures:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773704590_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Moss Park drug consumption sites to close as Ontario ends funding<\/p>\n
Two supervised drug consumption sites in Moss Park received letters on Friday from the Ontario Ministry of Health saying that their provincial funding will end in 90 days. CBC\u2019s Ali Chiasson spoke to advocates who are concerned this could lead to more open drug use in the area. <\/p>\n
There is strong evidence,\u00a0backed by numbers and analysis in Canada and abroad, that supervised injection sites are reducing overdose deaths, saving the health-care system and the public money, and preventing the transmission of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, Kolla said.<\/p>\n
\u201cStill, despite this, we get reactionary drug policy that does not at all actually fit with the evidence that we have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ontario’s Ministry of Health did not\u00a0directly respond when asked how much it would to cost to keep the remaining sites open.<\/p>\n
Ema Popovic, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said the government is spending $560 million to replace \u201cthe failed approach of drug injection sites” with its abstinence-based model known as homelessness and addiction recovery treatment, or HART, hubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of giving people tools to use harmful, illegal drugs, our government is helping people break the tragic cycle of drug addiction by making record investments in more mental health and wraparound supports,\u201d she said in a written statement. \u00a0<\/p>\n
WATCH | A look inside Windsor’s HART hub:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778851751_794_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
It’s been more than 6 months since Windsor’s HART hub opened. How’s it going?<\/p>\n
It’s been more than six months since Windsor got extra beds and services to help with homelessness and addiction treatment in the form of a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub. The CBC’s Jennifer La Grassa checks in on how it’s going so far.<\/p>\n
She said 28 HART hubs are operational and providing 24-7 services to people with mental health challenges, connecting them with resources such as supportive housing, social, employment and addiction treatment services.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Popovic said data on fatal overdoses indicates the government\u2019s drug policy is moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Ontario recorded 648 suspected overdose deaths in the first quarter of this year, down from 703 in the same period last year, according to data from the chief coroner’s office. Fatal opioid overdoses reached a high during the COVID-19 pandemic but have generally fallen year over year since then.<\/p>\n
Kolla said the HART hub model is going to leave out a significant portion of people with the most \u201cproblematic patterns\u201d of drug use, who aren\u2019t in a position to quit and are at high risk of overdose.<\/p>\n
“It’s a bit of magic thinking on the part of the Ontario government to think that you’re going to cut harm reduction services like\u00a0consumption\u00a0sites, and that’s going to somehow magically push people into treatment that also is not available to folks,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Numbers show sites save lives: Moss Park manager<\/p>\n
Supervised\u00a0consumption\u00a0sites in Ontario have recorded more than 1.4 million visits between 2020 and November 2025, according to federal data. More than 26,000 overdoses have also been reversed at these sites over the same the period, the data shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Moss Park site, located at Sherbourne Street and Queen Street East, has reversed more than 4,000 overdoses since it was founded in 2018, and costs close to $2 million a year to run, said Sarah Greig, the site’s manager.<\/p>\n
Supervised\u00a0consumption\u00a0sites were designated essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Moss Park location reversing some 800 overdoses in 2020 alone, Greig said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At first, the site run by the South Riverdale Community Health Centre only provided a supervised injection space and overdose response, she said.<\/p>\n
Now, it offers a long list of services, including mental health support, health care, social work, case management and drug testing, in addition to providing food and clothing, Greig said. Medicine to address withdrawal symptoms is also available for those who want to reduce or stop their substance use, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Woman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778851752_555_default.jpg\")
Sarah Greig, the director of substance abuse and mental health, at Toronto’s Moss Park supervised consumption site, which has seen an average of 25 new clients every month in the past year. (Chris Young\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day that people show up here it’s a sign that they are trying and trying to stay alive and trying to cope and work on their wellness,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Supervised\u00a0consumption\u00a0sites and the government’s hubs serve “two different populations,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Both deserve access to care and resources and dignity,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s not an either, it’s a both.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Moss Park site has seen an average of 25 new clients every month in the past year, Greig said. There were 40 new visitors last month, enough that the site decided it could no longer accept new clients.<\/p>\n
The planned closures will worsen the overdose crisis due to a large supply of \u201cunregulated and unpredictable\u201d drugs, Greig said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there’s going to be dead people littering our streets again.”<\/p>\n
Government’s model is ‘problematic’: physician<\/p>\n
Supervised\u00a0consumption\u00a0sites have played a significant role in connecting people who are dealing with addiction with the health-care system, advocates say.<\/p>\n
That’s how Dr. Katie Dorman, a primary care physician in Toronto, began seeing some of her clients, including Riley Bisson.<\/p>\n
People who use substances have historically experienced \u201csystematic exclusion\u201d from health care, and the looming closures will only make it worse, the doctor said, calling the government’s abstinence-based model “problematic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This recovery-oriented culture of care is looking to help a certain person with a certain goal rather than saying ‘come as you are, we’re here to support you,’ which is what I think supervised\u00a0consumption\u00a0services do really well,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to provide health care \u2026 whatever their goal is, whatever part of the trajectory they’re on, whether or not they are going to change, ever want to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shuttering the sites will eliminate spaces where substance users are welcome at a time when fewer and fewer options are available to them, she said. It will also cut off access to crucial harm reduction supplies such as clean needles and pipes as well as services to check the content of drugs, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople overdose when they don’t know what they’re using and when their drug supply is contaminated,\u201d Dorman said. Treating overdoses then becomes difficult because health professionals can’t be sure what people have used, she said.<\/p>\n
At the Moss Park site, visitors have access to a living area, a kitchen and a clinic or exam room.<\/p>\n
On a recent visit, about a dozen people occupied the space, some sitting on a couch and chairs in the living room, surrounded by walls decorated with messages scrawled on heart-shaped paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarm reduction isn\u2019t enabling! It is keeping us alive out of love,\u201d read a note pinned on a red board.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778851752_199_default.jpg\")
Rodney Wabanosse, right, also known as Mugzy, and his partner Erin Doherty share a moment outside the Moss Park supervised consumption site in Toronto. (Chris Young\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
Rodney Wabanosse and his partner, Erin Doherty, sat face to face with a table between them in the supervised injection room as two staff members moved around to help them and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wabanosse, who has an addiction to fentanyl, said he can\u2019t count on his fingers and toes the number of people he’s lost to overdoses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m lucky to be here … because of this place and because they saved my life a lot of times,\u201d he said before going into the injection room. \u201cYou have to have a place like this.”<\/p>\n
The mother of his children died of an overdose nearly two years ago, so Wabanosse recently decided to detox and stop using drugs. He is planning to start taking buprenorphine, a medication offered at the site and administered by monthly injection to help reduce opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms.<\/p>\n
The site’s closure will hinder his efforts, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to pass away because I don’t want my kids to have to go through (life)\u00a0with no parents,” said Wabanosse, who goes by the nickname Mugzy.<\/p>\n
His partner, Doherty, lost her husband to an overdose a few years ago. Doherty uses crystal meth and is a regular at the Moss Park site, where she receives social and health services and uses the injection room.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Mugzy and I have each other,” she said. “Besides that, we only have this place. That’s it.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Riley Bisson,\u00a0the unassuming one-storey house with a red brick exterior in Toronto’s downtown core\u00a0is more than just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-671223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778851749_500_default.jpg\")
Riley Bisson said safe consumption sites have helped her stay out of trouble and staff there have reversed her overdoses four times, saving her life. (Chris Young\/The Canadian Press)Families rely on safe injection sites, says mother<\/p>\n![\"Closeup](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778851749_224_default.jpg\")
Rose Bisson says she risks losing contact with her daughter if the site shuts down, since staff help keep them in touch through a weekly call. (Chris Young\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n