Somerset West consumption site to close due to provincial ban

The Ontario government announced new restrictions on supervised drug consumption sites, including a ban on sites within 200 metres of schools and childcare centres, which will lead to the closure of 10 facilities.

That includes the consumption site at the Somerset West Community Health Centre located in the Chinatown neighbourhood in Ottawa. It is a provincially-funded facility. According to Suzanne Obiorah, the executive director of the centre, the safe consumption and treatment site (CTS) is being forced to close by March 2025.

“We have not had any opportunity to engage with the provincial government prior to this message,” Obiorah said in a press conference. “However, we are gravely concerned that the decision to defund and close consumption and treatment services will have devastating consequences for our community.”

Safe consumption sites are often located in areas with high rates of drug use, and on-site staff are trained to recognize the signs of overdose and are equipped with naloxone.

Proponents of the public sites say one of the primary advantages is their ability to reduce fatal overdoses. In contrast, others argue that the sites send the wrong message about drug use, normalizing it instead of encouraging people to quit.

There are currently 17 provincially regulated consumption sites in the province. The 10 sites that will have to close are provincially-funded and one self-funded site. The other sites are located in Toronto, Kitchener, Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Guelph.

The new provincial restrictions will include addiction recovery supports with new treatment hubs, called Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs, that will add up to 375 highly supportive housing units, including addiction recovery and treatment beds.

Ontario’s Health Minister Sylvia Jones made the announcement at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

The government is also mandating new measures to better protect community safety near currently active sites, including new requirements for safety and security plans.

Obiorah said the centre was originally selected to provide safe consumption due to its need in the community.

“Our center was selected by the province to operate a consumption and treatment service because our community had the second highest rate of deaths due to drug overdoses and second highest rate of blood borne infections in the City of Ottawa,” she said.

In 2023 the centre’s staff successfully overturned 487 overdoses, which Obiorah said will result in 9-1-1 calls.

“Closing these services would not only be a step backward in public health, but would also ignore the evidence based approaches that have proven effective in saving lives,” she said.

Two CTS and a safe injection site operated by Ottawa Public Health do not seem to be impacted, although organization leaders have felt “blind sided” by the decision.

“Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is aware of the recent announcement by the Ontario government regarding supervised consumption and treatment services in the province,” the health unit said in a statement. “OPH will explore the impact of this announcement on our operations and our community.”

Premier Doug Ford has pulled funding from some supervised consumption sites and, in 2018, said he was “dead against” them. Ford has also previously indicated in past comments that changes to these sites are needed, referencing them as a haven for drug dealers.

With files from The Canadian Press and CityNews Toronto’s Lucas Casaletto.