Experts did not recommend closing Leslieville drug consumption site

The Ontario government's decision to shutter multiple supervised drug consumption sites in Toronto runs counter to the expert opinions it sought about one of those sites.

After Karolina Huebner-Makurat was fatally hit by a stray bullet while walking in Leslieville in July 2023, the Ministry of Health commissioned two reviews into supervised consumption and treatment services operated out of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC).

The two reviews were quietly posted online earlier this week.

Both recommended changes to the operations of the centre, and both recommended the province expand harm reduction resources — consumption and treatment services included. 

"Evidence shows that consumption treatment services are a necessary public health service, implemented to save lives and prevent accidental overdose death," says the SRCHC supervisor's report, dated April 2024.

An earlier review, conducted by Unity Health Toronto and dated February 2024, made a host of recommendations geared toward improving on-site security and relations with the broader community.

The South Riverdale Community Health Centre has been instructed to shutter its consumption services no later than March 31, 2025.

"We cannot continue to enable drug use in neighbourhoods that have schools and daycares," Health Minister Sylvia Jones told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on Wednesday.

"Our focus is very much on offering treatment and ensuring that we have those treatments available for people," said Jones, who did not mention either review or their findings and recommendations.

While the province's decision to shutter consumption sites within 200 metres of schools or daycares, announced Tuesday, has been welcomed by some — including residents in Huebner-Makurat's neighbourhood — it has been heavily criticized by others.

"Supervised consumption sites are located where people are at highest risk for overdoses," Zoë Dodd, a harm reduction worker, told Metro Morning on Wednesday.

Dodd, who has been affiliated with the SRCHC, was among those who defied the law to open an overdose prevention site in Moss Park after a spike in overdoses in summer 2017.

"What we do know is that where they are located, there's been a massive reduction in overdose deaths and calls to paramedics," she said. "They have been successful at reducing overdose deaths."

Toronto's top doctor reported 523 overdose deaths from opioids in 2023.