Members’ Statements
Addiction services
MPP Catherine McKenney
New documents obtained by Le Droit and reported out yesterday show that this Conservative government was warned about the risks related to the closure of supervised consumption sites. On March 30, 2025, the day before nine sites were forced to close—and in the case of Somerset West Community Health Centre, backed by knowingly false data—the Premier’s office and health minister were briefed by their very own ministry. The staff at the site and at other nearby community health centres and the closest hospital had all warned that they might not be able to handle the increased demand and that the closure would put emergency and front-line services at risk. The health minister was told that clients of another health centre here in Toronto had already started opening their own homes as de facto consumption sites. Those homes will include apartments and rooms in dense neighbourhoods with no health care available—and will likely be close to schools and parks. But that evidently was never the real concern. The minister knew all of this, and she closed the sites anyway. The government didn’t respond to those warnings, and it still won’t answer questions about them. This was never about evidence. People in my community are paying the price for a decision that was made against expert advice. This scandal-ridden government owes Ottawa Centre an explanation. An independent review of the effects of the closures must be conducted in order to restore any remaining faith in this government.