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The president of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) said the ruling to not fund intake sites is “a death sentence” for other people with addictions in Ontario.
Dr. Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Nurses Association, responding to remarks by Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones in Ottawa at the Association of Ontario Municipalities (AMO) annual conference.
Ontario will close 10 intake and treatment sites and ban long-term ones, which some experts say will lead to more deaths and public drug use.
The province will end nine intake and treatment sites, adding one in Kingston, London, Peterborough and St. John’s. Catharines, two in Ottawa and three in Toronto. I won’t be in Northern Ontario.
The Minister of Health told Ontario municipal leaders that she had heard from parents across the province who needed intake sites close to their homes.
“The parents the Prime Minister and I spoke to are desperate to do more,” Jones said. “That is why we will prohibit places of drug consumption within two hundred meters of schools and daycares. »
The government is also implementing new measures to increase protection of communities near the remaining sites, adding new protection needs and safety plans, as well as new policies to discourage loitering and promote reduced clashes and network participation, Jones said.
A news release says the government will also introduce legislation this fall that, if passed, would prohibit municipalities or any organizations from creating new intake sites or federal safer-source initiatives.
If approved, the law would also prevent municipalities from asking the federal government to decriminalize illegal drugs.
Grinspun said the fitness minister’s comments would only make things worse for others who are addicted and don’t have a supervised position to use drugs, with fitness staff nearby in a position to help.
“Hence, today’s government announcement to close supervised intake sites, adding the one in Sudbury, which closed due to lack of funding, is a death sentence that will lead to unsafe communities and cost better fitness outcomes,” Grinspun said. Formation
He also criticized Ontario Premier Doug Ford for turning a blind eye to a critical medical problem: the use of poisonous drugs.
Grinspun Ford has begun to align himself with the federal leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre.
“This is the camp because it will lead to a higher mortality rate,” he said. “It is a death sentence for other people who use substances, because the challenge today is poisonous drugs, that is the challenge. ”
He said that with the closure of new supervised admission sites, addicts will be forced to go to more public spaces to consume drugs and this will be a scenario that will worry many people.
Health Minister Jones also said at the AMO convention on Tuesday that Ontario is spending millions to create new treatment and recovery centers, which she said would help bring others back to life.
“The province is making a $378 million investment in 19 new Homeless Remedial and Addiction Recovery Centers (HART). These new centers are in addition to the more than $3. 8 billion the province is investing recently through its Roadmap to Wellness and almost $700 million for supportive housing in the Homelessness Prevention Program and the Indigenous Supportive Housing every year,” Jones said. .
Starting with the new HART Hubs program, Jones said the new processing amenities would provide:
The HART centers will incorporate up to 375 highly supervised housing units, in addition to detox and addiction treatment beds, which will help thousands of people transition to stronger long-term housing each year.
Focusing on treatment and recovery, HART centers will not offer “safer” origination programs, supervised drug use, or needle exchange.
– With Trillium files
Len Gillis covers medical care and mining for Sudbury. com.
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