Ontario opens homelessness and addiction hubs, replacing consumption sites near schools and daycares
CBC
Ontario opened nine Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs on Tuesday, replacing the supervised drug consumption sites across the province that are located near schools and child-care centres.
The hubs provide access to recovery and treatment systems for people struggling with addictions and mental health issues, but do not provide any drug consumption services, the province said in a news release Tuesday.
"We're making Ontario safer and helping people fighting addiction find lasting recovery," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a post on X on Tuesday.
These hubs were announced after the province passed legislation last year banning supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares. Nine out of 10 sites slated to close in the province agreed to become HART hubs.
Advocates have criticized the province's shift to an abstinence-based treatment model, which they say could result in more people dying as a result of the toxic drug supply.
HART hubs will receive up to four times more funding than they did as supervised consumption sites, the provincial news release said. They will provide services including primary care, mental health services, addiction care and support and employment support.
The hubs opening Tuesday are located in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph and Thunder Bay. The government is spending $550 million to create a total of 28 HART hubs across the province, the news release said.
Last week, an Ontario judge granted an injunction to keep the 10 supervised consumption sites open while he considers a Charter challenge to the province's legislation. But a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Monday that the sites would still close.
The province will withhold funding from any HART Hub that continues to provide supervised drug consumption services, spokesperson Hannah Jensen said.
Even if supervised drug consumption sites located near schools and daycares are no longer forced to close, they may eventually close anyway if they don't have the provincial funds to keep operating, said Diana Chan McNally, a Toronto community worker and expert in harm reduction.
The Charter challenge was launched by the Neighbourhood Group, which runs the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention site in Toronto. The site is the only one of the 10 sites in the province that will remain open, as it operates on donations and is not provincially funded.
More than 21,000 overdoses have been reversed at supervised consumption sites across the province since they became legal in 2019, court heard last week.
The following centres are opening HART hubs on Tuesday. Toronto Public Health will also be creating a hub downtown:
A new study by biologists at the University of Victoria has revealed why the simple back-and-forth motion of drift logs on B.C. beaches has destroyed critical ecosystems that keep the ocean healthy.
According to Niagara native, Lindsay Davies, the complaint that Ontario is a boring province when it comes to outdoor adventures is just plain wrong.
As of Jan. 1, most job postings in Ontario need to include salary figures, carbon monoxide alarms need to be on every level of a home and municipalities are now out of the recycling business.
Hundreds of medical school graduates, donning their hard-earned white coats, start their residencies every summer, during which they take on at least a few more years of training in a specialized field, like surgery or pediatrics, before they're licensed to practise.
Unreserved spoke to many acclaimed Indigenous authors in 2025. Each shared a few lessons that help them navigate life’s challenges and joys.
If you thought December seemed colder and snowier than usual, you're right.
Theodore has once again claimed the top spot as the most popular baby name on Prince Edward Island in 2025.
When you think about diversity in Toronto, things like its food, neighbourhoods or people probably come to mind. What you might not picture is the team working to maintain a key aspect of the city that impacts everyone: its ecological diversity.
The first weekend of the new year is going out with a bang and will likely leave the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador wrapped in a blanket of snow.
WARNING: This story contains references to and images of antisemitic symbols.
After a devastating fire destroyed Prince Albert’s Salvation Army building on Christmas night, the charity has found a space to lease in the northern Saskatchewan city’s downtown.
Mayor Andrew Knack had a rollercoaster 2025.
A coastal flooding alert is in place this weekend for B.C.’s South Coast, including Metro Vancouver and parts of southern Vancouver Island.