The federal government officially declined Toronto's request to decriminalize small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use, citing the province's opposition.
"Today, (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Ya'ara) Saks has refused the request, as proposed from Toronto Public Health, to decriminalize personal possession of controlled drugs and substances for people in Toronto. She has determined that it does not adequately protect public health and maintain public safety," the minister said in a statement. "This includes concerns with feasibility and ability for law enforcement to implement the proposed model, protection of youth, and lack of support from key players including the Province of Ontario."
It came after much back-and-forth between three levels of government.
On Thursday, two provincial ministers asked the City of Toronto to abandon its drug decriminalization request.
"Ontario is 100 per cent opposed to your proposal," Health Minister Sylvia Jones and Solicitor General Michael Kerzner wrote in a letter to Toronto Public Health.
"Under no circumstances will our government ever support your request (to the federal government), which would only add to crime and public drug use while doing nothing to support people struggling with addiction. We will also be making our opposition clear to the federal government."
Toronto city councillor Chris Moise, who chairs the city's board of health, said he has "no intention" of pulling the request.
The feds' final decision came Friday evening, after Premier Doug Ford wrote a letter calling on it to stop approving safer supply programs in Ontario, and to formally review those it has already allowed.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday, the premier said he wants provincial approval to be required for federally authorized safer supply programs in Ontario. He also suggested he would not give his approval for those programs.
While most public health leaders in Ontario, including the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore, are in favour of safer supply programs, they are politically controversial. In a recent report, Moore argued in favour of safer supply programs, but also of regulating and evaluating them to blunt the risk that the drugs are diverted to the illegal market.
"When thousands of people are dying from preventable overdoses each year in Ontario, the system must take urgent steps to keep people alive, such as creating safe spaces where people can use drugs, and providing regulated pharmaceutical alternatives (e.g. a safer supply of drugs)," Moore wrote. "With these harm-reduction responses in place, people who use opioids may be in a better position to benefit from offers of education and treatment, and to make choices that enable them to reduce or even stop their opioid use."
Ford's letter emphasized the diversion of the drugs British Columbia has experienced.
"The deputy chief of the Vancouver Police Department and the head of the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police testified that half of the hydromorphone, a controlled substance as dangerous as heroin, seized in the province came from 'safe supply' programs," wrote Ford.
"An earlier review conducted by their provincial health officer also indicated that the diversion of controlled substances obtained at these facilities was a common occurrence, including to trade for more lethal and harmful drugs like fentanyl. It also indicated that diversion is contributing to higher youth opioid use rates and has led to individuals in successful treatment services relapsing due to easy access."
"In Ontario, due to Health Canada’s siloed approval process, the province is completely in the dark about where these federally approved sites are operating and the quantity of controlled and illegal substances they dispense," he continued. "This is frankly unacceptable, given its adverse effects on our communities."
Ford began his letter by thanking the prime minister for deciding not to proceed with any decriminalization proposals without the province’s backing.
A statement from the office of the federal minister of mental health and addictions suggested the federal government is not inclined to grant Ford's request to heed the province's wishes on safer supply, as it has on broader decriminalization.
“We need all partners working together to address the illegal toxic drug supply in our communities," said the statement. "Provinces and territories play an important role as they deliver health services and best know the needs of their communities. As the practice of medicine is provincially regulated, we expect Ontario to determine and enforce the medical guidelines they deem necessary to keep people and communities safe whenever a doctor is prescribing medications for their patients."
"Law enforcement has been clear: the illegal toxic drug supply is the main driver of the overdose crisis," it continued. "Diversion of prescribed alternative medications is illegal. That’s why Health Canada has ramped up mitigation measures for all federal prescribed alternative projects and we expect provinces and territories to do the same."
That letter also indicated the province has finished a review of safe consumption sites it struck in the wake of a July 2023 shooting that killed a woman near Toronto's South Riverdale Community Health Centre.
The province will "begin enacting enhanced accountability measures for existing consumption and treatment services sites to ensure that the safety and well-being of the public is protected," the letter said.
In October, Ontario's Mental Health and Addictions Minister Michael Tibollo said the review would determine what protocols should be in place for each of the province's 17 consumption and treatment sites. He also said the province does not want to open additional sites until the new protocols are implemented. At least five sites have applications pending approval before the province.
Some of those sites have federal exemptions to drug laws that allow them to operate, but no provincial funding.
Sites in Sudbury and Windsor closed down over the delay in their provincial funding requests.
In a statement to The Trillium, Jones wouldn't elaborate on what the new measures are but said the government will provide more details in the coming weeks.
Kerzner also didn't budge while speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon.
—With files from Aidan Chamandy
Editor's note: This story was updated after it was first published to reflect that the federal government refused Toronto's drug decriminalization request.
