Ontario Premier Doug Ford asks feds to pause safe supply programs
Global News
Ford has written a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking the federal government to review the Health Canada-approved safe supply sites across the country.
The federal government should put a pin in approving new sites that supply safe opioids, Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote in a letter to the prime minister, while also calling for a review of the Health Canada-approved sites across the country.
The requests come after the provincial health minister and solicitor general wrote to Toronto Public Health’s top doctor, telling her to drop the city’s application to decriminalize illegal drug possession for personal use.
Dr. Eileen de Villa defended the application and the chair of the city’s board of health refused to drop it. They said they are trying to save lives and noted that safe supply is one tool that can help.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said Toronto would need provincial support for its decriminalization bid. Ford said he’d like safe supply sites to also require provincial buy-in.
“I’m now asking that you also extend the requirement for provincial support to ‘safe supply’ sites, which are approved solely and unilaterally by Health Canada,” the premier wrote.
“Due to Health Canada’s siloed approval process, the province is completely in the dark about where these federally approved sites are operating and the quantity of controlled and illegal substances they dispense. This is frankly unacceptable.”
The federal government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Health Canada lists 16 safe supply projects approved in Ontario – all but one, in Thunder Bay, Ont., are in southern Ontario.
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