Ford government to end funding for remaining supervised consumption sites: advocates
Written by The Canadian Press on March 13, 2026
Harm reduction advocates say Ontario’s remaining supervised consumption sites will be forced to close after Premier Doug Ford’s government informed them Friday that the province is planning to pull their funding.
Janet Butler-McPhee, co-executive director of the HIV Legal Network, says advocacy groups learned of the move late in the day and do not yet have full details of the decision.
The move would affect the last two provincially funded supervised consumption sites in Toronto, as well as sites in Ottawa, London, Kingston and Peterborough.
The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
In 2024, Ford’s government banned consumption sites within 200 metres of a school or daycare, targeting 10 sites across the province for closure by the end of March 2025.
Most of those sites chose to convert to the province’s new abstinence-based model — homelessness and addiction recovery treatment, or HART, hubs — and closed.
The government has also banned new consumption sites from opening altogether.
The province is moving away from harm reduction to an abstinence-based model as it launches 19 HART hubs, plus 375 highly supportive housing units at a planned cost of $378 million.
Health-care workers, advocates and homeless people have all said consumption site closures would lead to more deaths.
Butler-McPhee called the province’s decision to defund the remaining sites a “cowardly move.”
“People will die without access to the life-saving care they receive at these sites. The sites exist within our communities and make them better and safer for everyone,” she said at a virtual press conference Friday.
Meanwhile, Zoe Dodd, an organizer with the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, described the news as “absolutely appalling.”
“Wait times are still long for treatment and all these other things that the government has promised. This decision today is deadly. We’re angry about this decision, and we will be fighting,” she said at the press conference.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said in a press release Friday that it “strongly condemns” the decision to defund consumption sites, calling it “misguided.”
“This is a moment that demands expanded, evidence-based supports — not reduced access to critical, lifesaving health-care services,” the association said.
“We call on the Ontario government to reverse its decision to defund safe consumption sites and to uphold the safety, health, and dignity of all people, including those with addiction to substances.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026.
Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press