Nurses are the latest group to express “grave concern” that the new government in the province of Ontario may stop funding services designed to protect injection drug users. The new health minister, Christine Elliott said on July 24, 2018 that the government is reviewing evidence on supervised injection and overdose prevention sites to see if they “have merit” and are worth continuing.

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario has written the minister an open letter saying “there is robust peer-reviewed evidence that the services are saving lives and making a difference as the province grapples with a growing opioid crisis.”

Opioid crisis claims thousands of lives

In Ontario in 2017, there were at least 1,261 deaths attributed to opioid poisoning, according to government statistics. That was an increase of 45 per cent over the previous year. In all of Canada, the death toll was almost 4,000.

During his election campaign earlier this year, Premier Doug Ford said he was “dead set” against safe injection and overdose prevention sites. The health minister says the government will look at all of the sites and decide whether to continue to approve and fund them.

During Ontario’s election campaign, Doug Ford said he was against supervised injection sites and would instead focus on drug rehabilitation. (CBC)

‘We’ll have a lot more dead people’

Critics, advocates and health professionals say that closing them would be a major setback in trying to step the opioid crisis. “To put it bluntly, we’ll have a lot more dead people,” said Nick Boyce, director of the Ontario HIV & Substance Use Training Program to The Canadian Press. Opposition parties have also expressed concern.