“This is going to claim lives”: Clancy on SCTS ban

November 19, 2024

QUEEN'S PARK — Ontario Greens Deputy Leader and MPP for Kitchener Centre Aislinn Clancy released the following statement in response to the tabling of the Ford government’s proposed legislation that would ban the operation of supervised consumption and treatment sites in Ontario.

“This legislation is going to claim lives. It will lead to more public drug use, more infectious disease spread and more drug poisonings showing up in our ERs. It will make our communities less safe because as harm reduction spaces disappear, public drug use will only increase.

People are not going to stop using drugs simply because we take harm reduction services away from them. Ontario needs harm reduction and it needs supportive housing and it needs accessible treatment options for people in addictions recovery.

People who use drugs are members of our communities. Their lives matter, and the loss of SCTS just means more of them are going to be lost to fatal drug poisonings.

Once again, I call on the Premier and the Minister of Health to scrap this plan and properly invest in harm reduction as part of a comprehensive plan to provide low-barrier mental health and addictions care to every single Ontarian who needs it.

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