How should Toronto best combat drug addiction? Mayoral candidates have starkly different ideas

Toronto's overdose crisis took the spotlight on the mayoral campaign trail Wednesday, with some candidates suggesting the city change course on decriminalization while others argue it's best not to politicize the issue.

"I do think that it's a health issue, but I'm not supportive of decriminalizing," former police chief and mayoral candidate Mark Saunders said in an interview with CBC News. 

"I kind of feel like we're giving up when we answer it that way."

Data shows that Canada's overdose crisis has worsened during the pandemic, with the number of people dying from illicit drugs soaring to new heights in many provinces. According to those who research and work with drug users, the country's increasingly toxic drug supply is to blame. 

In Toronto, the number of deaths from opioid toxicity has been steadily climbing, according to figures provided by Toronto Public Health. In 2014, there were 124 confirmed fatalities. That number increased to 591 in 2021 — the last year for which data is currently available. 

Toronto made a request to the federal government in January 2022 to decriminalize all drugs for personal use. The city updated that request last month, laying out a model that goes further than what Health Canada approved in British Columbia. 

Like Saunders, not all mayoral candidates agree with the move.

Former longtime councillor Giorgio Mammoliti argues that decriminalization doesn't work — and isn't safe. 

"City officials have blatantly disregarded the inevitable negative consequences of this decision on the community, downtown businesses, school and marginalized communities," he said in a news release Wednesday. 

City councillor and mayoral candidate Josh Matlow, meanwhile, says the city must follow medical evidence when it comes to tackling the city's overdose crisis. 

"The debate about whether or not to decriminalize drugs should be facts-based, objective and we should follow the experts' guidance," he told CBC News in an interview. 

"This shouldn't be a political game. We're talking about people's lives." 

Matlow is instead proposing a plan to create a $115-million "community health and safety fund" to combat the root causes of violence in Toronto — which he says would be achieved by capping the police budget for the next three years.

He said "stabilizing" the police budget at $1.16 billion for the next three years would free up funds in subsequent budgets to invest in preventing violent crime through avenues like mental health supports.