Ontario has announced sweeping changes to drug policy in the province, including banning supervised consumption sites near schools and childcare centres, which will result in the closure of more than half of the current locations.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced Tuesday the government is banning supervised consumption sites – called consumption and treatment services in Ontario – within 200 metres of schools and childcare centres. The decision, which will take effect next March, means ten of the province’s 17 sites will be forced to close, including nine that are provincially-funded. This includes four in Toronto that are provincially-funded and one that is self-funded. The government is also adding new safety requirements for existing sites, including increased security plans.

Ontario also said it would introduce legislation this fall to prohibit municipalities or any organization from setting up new consumption sites or participating in federal so-called “safer” supply initiatives. In safer supply programs, medical professionals prescribe controlled substances as a safer alternative to the illegal drug supply. Ontario said the bill would also prohibit municipalities from requesting the decriminalization of illegal dr order phoenix tears ugs from the federal government.

In a speech at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, Ms. Jones buy dolce gelato strain cited a rise in assaults and violent crimes near the current sites as the reason for the change.

“Parents the chron father are worried about the discarded needles that their children could pick up. Some parents no longer feel comfortable sending their children to the local elementary school or have pulled them out of their local daycare,” Ms. Jones said in her prepared remarks.

“Businesses and communities are concerned about the disruptive behaviour and increased crime around drug consumption sites that impact their livelihoods.”

She said the government needs to do more to focus on treatment and recovery. She said Ontario will spend $378-million for 19 new “Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs” to provide 375 “highly supportive housing units” as well as addiction recovery and treatment beds. The province said the 10 provincially-funded consumption sites will be encouraged to submit proposals to transition to HART Hubs.

The opioid crisis, spurred by the increasingly toxic drug supply, killed more than 2,500 people in Ontario last year. But the debate over how to best tackle addiction and combat illicit drugs has taken c buy weed online entre stage in recent months.

Ontario’s focus on treatment as opposed to harm reduction follows similar approaches by conservatives in Alber buy weed online ta as well as a pledge by federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to pull funding from the sites, which he calls “drug dens,” and instead direct money to addiction recovery programs.

Health and community advocates say harm-reduction measures such as supervised consumption sites are crucial to saving lives, and government-imposed restrictions to them can be fatal. The sites allow people to bring in and use illicit drugs under supervision to prevent overdoses or spread of infectious diseases.

But they have also been under increased scrutiny across the country over their safety impact on surrounding communities.

Last summer, Ontario launched a review of the province’s 17 sites, as well as a third-party review of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre in east Toronto, after a 44-year-old mother of two was killed by a stray bullet outside of the site last July.

The government’s new rules will mean the closure of 10 sites, including those in Ottawa, Guelph, Hamilton, Thunder Bay, Kitchener, and five locations in Toronto no later than March 31 of next year.

The South Riverdale Community Health Centre in Toronto is among those that are closing.

The Ontario NDP criticized the Ford government’s decision, saying the province has made “the callous decision to take away a vital tool that saves lives.”

Ontario Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie agreed sites should not be next schools, but criticized the province over health care funding and said Mr. Ford’s government “needs to be clear on how they will maintain the capacity required to provide treatment to those who need it.”

In a July report from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario about the opioid crisis, the organization representing 444 municipalities, said the roots of the opioid crisis are multi-faceted and compounded by decades of provincial failure to adequately invest in social systems that support income security, affordable housing, and prevent or address mental health and addictions.

AMO said supervised consumption sites are an important component of Ontario’s harm reduction approach.

“The evidence shows that these sites help save lives. They should be approved and funded based on demonstrated local need and community engagement,” the report said, adding that many sites have had to close because of a lack of funding.

Brian Rosborough, AMO’s executive director, told the conference this week municipalities are overwhelmed by challenges such as homeless encampments and the opioid crisis are looking for a more coordinated approach from the provincial government, including more funding.

Ontario’s new approach appears to emulate that of Alberta, which favours recovery-oriented services over harm reduction supports. The Alberta has said supervised consumption sites must meet a number of requirements such as ensuring safety and security of clients and the public, as well as putting into place “good neighbour” agreements.

There are currently seven supervised consumption locations in Alberta, including one still operating in Calgary that the province previously said it would shut down and replace with two other sites that already serve people with addictions.

Mr. Poilievre has also said he would pull funding from supervised injection sites and force some to close. If he becomes prime minister, Mr. Poilievre said if he would pull funding from all drug-consumption sites and instead direct funding to addiction recovery programs. There are currently 38 federally authorized drug-consumption sites across the country, a number that has risen steeply under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Last spring, British Columbia clawed back its drug-decriminalization pilot project, which allowed British Columbians 18 and older to carry up to a cumulative total of 2.5 grams of illicit opioids, crack and powder cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA without criminal penalties, and police were not to seize the drugs.

Mayors, hospitals and opposition critics had called for the province to reverse course, citing increased public drug use and disorder.