A petition to designate Hamilton’s public libraries as drug consumption sites recently appeared on the agenda at the city’s Public Health Sub-Committee.
The petition was placed on the agenda by Ward 2 (Downtown Hamilton) Councillor Cameron Kroetsch, although he said that the petition was not necessarily endorsed by him but added to the agenda as a matter of procedure.
Under Council procedures, resident petitions are no longer automatically added to committee agendas. Instead, a councillor has to add petitions to the agenda.
Kroetsch said that “it made sense” for him to add the petition to the Public Health Sub-Committee’s agenda since he serves as the Chair.
The petition was simply added as an “Item for Information” for sub-committee members to take note.
It suggested that “rudimentary structures” be erected outside of libraries for drug consumption and that the sites be monitored by trained personnel.
Once the petition was added to the agenda, the topic sparked debate online and in local media.
The petition also resulted in a response from Paul Takala, the CEO of Hamilton Public Library, and Gagan Batra who serves as the Hamilton Public Library Board Chair.
The two officials wrote to the Public Health Sub-Committee in opposition to the petition.
“The petition is not proposed by, nor is it the direction of the Hamilton Public Library,” read the letter.
“The petition’s proposed service would likely negatively impact on our ability to provide library services, particularly our work to support families to grow the next generation of readers,” they continued.
“This statement is based on usage trends we have already seen at the Central Library, which has been most impacted by the opioid crisis. At Central Library, children’s book and other youth material borrowing was down 62% in 2024 compared to 2019,” they continued.
The petition was also reportedly brought to the attention of Ontario Premier Doug Ford by Hamilton resident Andrew Selman, with Ford reportedly saying that the debate is moot since the province will not be issuing any more drug consumption site licenses anyways.
It should be noted that the petition was only signed by 115 people. According to the last census data from 2021, the City of Hamilton has 569,353 people.
That means that the petition was signed by 0.02 per cent of the city’s population.
The public version of the petition does not include the names of those who signed.
In the end, the Public Health Sub-Committee simply received the petition as information and no further action was taken.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
