Overdose prevention funding freeze ‘huge step backwards’ for Ontario, Vancouver mayor says

Thestar.com
September 6, 2018
Emily Mathieu

Vancouver’s mayor has decried a decision by Doug Ford’s government to freeze funding to overdose prevention sites in the midst of a deadly and worsening opioid crisis.

“It is a huge step backwards to diminish harm reduction efforts that are saving lives,” said Gregor Robertson, speaking with the Star’s editorial board on Wednesday about how Vancouver is tackling a surge of overdose deaths. “Harm reduction is the bare minimum to manage an epidemic of this magnitude.”

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, during a stop in Toronto Wednesday, had strong words for Ontario, calling a funding freeze on any harm reduction services a "huge step backwards."

Robertson was responding to a question about whether the freeze, pending a review of the program, was a mistake for Ontario, which like Vancouver is grappling with the lethal impact an increasingly tainted drug supply is having on people using drugs.

A range of harm reduction services play a vital role in saving lives until all levels of government can find a way to guarantee adequate access to mental health and addiction services, as well as affordable housing, he said.

“There is a lot being learned but there is not enough action and it is terrifying that Ontario is considering rolling backwards, and I can only imagine the cost of human lives here if that happens,” Robertson added.

During the spring election campaign, Ford said he was “dead set” against safe injection sites, instead pledging to dedicate $1.9 billion to mental health, addiction and housing services. “We have to help these people. We can’t just keep feeding them and feeding them,” said Ford, in April.

In 2017, 366 people in Vancouver died from fatally high concentrations of drugs. In Toronto, that number hit 303, a 63 per cent increase from the previous year.

Mayor John Tory has repeatedly asked the province to expedite the review and has also called on the province to allow previously approved overdose prevention sites to open in the meantime. Toronto has been rolling out safe injection and overdose prevention sites over the past year, but advocates and front-line workers say more is needed.

“The overdose prevention sites and the supervised injection sites are saving lives,” Tory told reporters during a campaign event on Wednesday. The city has a “responsibility” to offer any services that are proven to save lives, he said.

Tory and Robertson will take part in a panel discussion on addiction, overdoses and potential solutions on Thursday, with federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Bill Blair, the minister responsible for border security and reducing organized crime, and British Columbia’s minister of mental health and addiction, Judy Darcy.

The conversation is part of a two-day Opioid Symposium in Toronto, organized by Health Canada.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott announced in mid-August that the government would be freezing funding to three approved overdose prevention sites, where people can use drugs under supervision, pending a program review. One site was planned for the city’s Parkdale neighbourhood. Rather than wait for the go-ahead, the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society opened up a renegade site, operating out of a tent.

At the symposium, Wednesday, harm reduction worker Zoe Dodd asked Petitpas Taylor if the federal government would step in if the province decided to cut funding. Petitpas Taylor said she was “absolutely committed to working with the government to make sure these services remain open,” in a video clip shot by medical student Alison Sumner and posted on Twitter.

More than 850 doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, harm reduction and front-line workers have signed on to an open letter, stating they are “extremely concerned about the potentially fatal impact” of the funding freeze. Evidence shows, they stated, that the sites keep people alive.

“Delaying the opening of these sites will contribute to unnecessary illness and death,” they wrote, in the letter released Wednesday. “The government’s lack of urgency in dealing with this crisis is negligent and inhumane.”

Included in their demands: The three already approved overdose prevention sites be allowed to open; applications for additional sites be approved; that expanded and continued funding be invested in harm reduction services; and that people with lived experience, front-line workers, and health care providers be engaged in “meaningful conversations” around strategies.

Elliott’s spokesperson said the review will “conclude in short order,” a recommendation will follow and “in the interim, the ministry has indicated that no new sites should open to the public.” said Hayley Chazan, in an email sent Wednesday.

“Minister Elliott is undertaking an evidence-based review, listening to experts, community leaders, community members and individuals who have lived through addiction to ensure that any continuation of drug injection sites introduce people into rehabilitation and ensure those struggling with addiction get the help they need.”