Toronto supervised consumption site to close after province cuts off funding

TORONTO — A supervised consumption site in Toronto’s west end says it will have to close next month as the Ontario government cuts off its funding.

The Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre says the decision is devastating and it will force people to use drugs in public parks, washrooms, shelters and elsewhere, making the problem even worse.

A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones says the province is terminating funding for the Parkdale site as of Nov. 22 in response to concerns about increased crime in the area.

Ema Popovic says that funding will instead be put toward the province’s addiction treatment and recovery programs.

The community health centre closed another one of its supervised consumption sites in the spring after the province passed a law banning such sites within 200 metres of a school or daycare.

That site, along with several others across the province, agreed to transition to the province’s new abstinence-based model – homelessness and addiction recovery treatment, or HART, hubs.

Angela Robertson, the executive director of the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, said the centre supports HART hubs, “but these new services do not replace — or justify abandoning” supervised consumption services.

“We need both, along with the supportive housing and wrap-around care that the government itself says is required,” she said in a statement.

“Closing a life-saving service without offering an alternative may initially satisfy those who see it as a problem, but the impact of this decision will cost lives, heighten community tensions and deepen the inequities our province is already struggling to contain.”

Robertson told The Canadian Press over the summer that the centre’s Parkdale site had seen tremendous growth since the closures of other consumption sites, which had created a lot of upheaval.

Neighbourhood group Residents for a Safe Parkdale said at the time that their concerns were being ignored and the centre’s hired security did little to crack down on the “chaos and disorder” in the area.

The province said it is giving more people “pathways to break the tragic cycle of addiction” with its plan to build 28 HART hubs across the province.

It said more than 10,000 people have accessed services at HART hubs since April 1, with data from the Office of the Chief Coroner showing a decrease in opioid-related deaths.

Provincewide, there were 609 suspected drug-related deaths from April to June, an 11 per cent decrease from the previous three months and a 41 per cent drop from the same time frame last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2025.

The Canadian Press