The Liberal Party's MPPs voted to support Bill 223, the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act, when it passed the third reading on Monday.
When asked why the party supported a bill it has criticized as potentially leading to the deaths of drug users, Party Leader Bonnie Crombie and parliamentary leader John Fraser said they agreed with the bill’s overall aim of banning supervised drug consumption sites (SCSs) from being within 200 metres schools and daycares.
“There are measures in the bill that are very supportable,” Fraser said, pointing to the new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs the legislation proposes. “Bills aren't always black and white.”
Fraser said he still supports supervised consumption sites because they “keep people alive, and it's up to the government now to fulfil the commitment that they made for the HART hubs, to do that fast and to make sure that they keep people alive.”
Crombie added that while the Liberals "don't support consumption sites near schools, near daycares or other sensitive uses,” but added a Liberal government would “follow the science” and preserve access to consumption treatment services for those who need it, although she didn’t elaborate on how.
The vote in favour of shutting down supervised consumption sites comes as the Liberals appear to be shifting rightward on various issues, including taxation and the federal carbon tax. Asked about Liberal support for Bill 223, NDP Leader Marit Stiles said, “I don't know what the Liberals stand for anymore.”
When asked why the NDP had not forced a recorded vote on the legislation, Stiles said the PC government had "sprung" the vote "on us."
"I guess they were rushing to get out of get that done before the auditor general's report," Stiles said.
On Tuesday, Ontario's auditor general released a report on the province's opioid strategy that found the 10 supervised drug consumption sites being forced to shut down this spring prevented nearly 1,600 fatal opioid overdoses in one year.
The auditor also reported that the government "has not developed plans to mitigate the risks" that the Ministry of Health's internal documents acknowledge are the likely result of closing the SCSs, including "an increased risk of deaths," financial and operational "burden" on emergency rooms, more public drug use and discarded needles, and leaving "Northern Ontarians with no access to supervised consumption services going forward."
At a press conference earlier in the morning, Drug Strategy Network of Ontario director Michael Parkinson told reporters he expects deaths will rise almost soon after the supervised drug consumption closes.
“There is nowhere else for people to go. So when Health Minister Sylvia Jones says people will not die, that is absolutely not true. People will die, and they will die fairly quickly after SCSs are closed in Ontario,” warned Parkinson.
During question period, Minister Jones continued to face questions about the lack of expert analysis and or consultation before passing Bill 223.
"We are listening to the parents, to the family members, to schools, to daycares …Those are the experts we're listening to,” she said.
Parkinson, however, argued that in his community of Kitchener, locals are supportive of the supervised consumption sites, including the nearby daycare.
"The daycare across the street from the supervised consumption site is openly worried about the closure of the site," he said. "They're worried about an increase in drug debris and worried about a child or a parent witnessing someone in medical distress or dead."
Note: This story has been updated to correct a quote by MPP John Fraser.
