Since the provincial government ordered the closure of supervised injection sites within 200 metres of daycare centres, the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre has been forced to stop providing both medical supervision and sterilized needles as of June 13th, 2026.
While a large spike in overdose deaths has not materialized, the long-term health effects of the Ford government’s decision is clear: rising rates of blood-borne illnesses.
Joey, who formerly used the supervised injection site at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, said that the changes since the closure have been noticeable.
“People are reusing old gear,” said Joey. “And when a group of addicts are using, gear gets mixed up.”
Joey also blamed increased police foot patrols for contributing to the health crisis. “So many people are going into withdrawals because cops took their gear,” he said. “It’s really hard to get clean equipment after. When people are dopesick, they’ll take anything, even gear left on the ground by strangers.”
Joey said that he has seen someone use the same needle or ‘rig’ on three different people. “When people are dopesick, they start shaking,” he explained. Someone who is good at ‘flagging’, meaning injecting for someone else, will often inject for others.
Before the closure, users had access to safe and sterile equipment. Now, it is much more difficult to acquire. The Ford government has repeatedly defended the closures by pointing to the 550 million dollar investment in Homelessness Addiction Recovery and Treatment (HART) Hubs which is intended “to help people, get them proper shelter, get them the support they need, get them employment if they need,” Premier Doug Ford told reporters in March 2026.
“HART hub doesn’t provide treatment. They offer conversion therapy for drug addicts.”
Dr. Katarina Bogosavljević, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta said that politicians create a false dichotomy between harm reduction services and treatment, when “they are both part and need to be part of an integrated healthcare system.” Dr. Bogosavljević welcomes investment in treatment centres but argues that coupling this investment with cuts to safe injection sites undermines their benefits. This crisis requires “a scale up, not a scale down,” said Dr. Bogosavljević.
National rates of HIV/AIDS are on the rise. Data from the Public Health Agency of Canada, which reports on national rates of HIV infections every two years, shows there was a 22.8 per cent increase in new HIV infections between 2022 and 2024. Dr. Bogosavljević emphasized that Premier Ford’s cuts in Ontario and Premier Smith’s cuts in Alberta will lead to higher rates of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne illnesses in communities across the country and could lead to increased hospitalizations.
Dr. Bogosavljević said that safe injection sites not only act as a distribution point for sterile equipment but are a “vital point of care” to help screen for other health issues that will worsen if left unaddressed.
When The Leveller asked Joey whether he would consider using the new HART hub, which is located on Somerset West, a fifty-minute walk or thirty-minute bus ride from the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, he said he would not.
Joey said, “They don’t provide treatment. They offer conversion therapy for drug addicts.”
