The City of Hamilton’s Board of Health recently passed a motion to advocate to the province for the return of drug consumption sites.
The Government of Ontario, under Premier Doug Ford, ordered nine of the province’s 17 drug consumption sites to close in 2025, since those sites were within 200 metres of schools or childcare centres.
The province also introduced legislation to prohibit municipalities or any organization from setting up new consumption sites or participating in any federal drug supply initiatives.
Ontario Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said at the time, “Communities, parents and families across Ontario have made it clear that the presence of consumption sites near schools and daycares is leading to serious safety problems.”
As an alternative, the province invested $378 million to set up 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hubs (HART Hubs), which are focused on treatment and recovery and do not offer drug supply, supervised drug consumption, or needle exchange programs.
The motion at the Board of Health was brought forward by citizen member Ryan Janssen, who serves as the Manager of Health Equity, Haldimand, and Mental Health and Addictions for the Greater Hamilton Health Network.
It passed unanimously in a 9-0 vote.
The vote marks the first time that the Board of Health has advocated to the province since the city switched to a semi-autonomous model.
The Board of Health used to be made up of the mayor and all 15 city councillors, but the structure was switched to a mixed board of six city councillors, six community representatives with health expertise and lived experience, and one education sector representative.
Unlike with other boards, motions passed at the Board of Health do not require ratification from Council as a whole.
Janssen’s motion argues that the average number of monthly opioid related paramedic responses in Hamilton has more than doubled in the 11 months following the provincially-mandated closure of Hamilton’s consumption and treatment service (CTS) relative to the 11 months prior to the closure.
There were an average of 61 monthly opioid-related paramedic responses between May 2024 and May 2025, and an average of 134 monthly calls between May 2025 and March 2026.
However, a report from city staff says that opioid-related deaths have decreased locally since peaking at 167 in 2021.
Annual totals since then were 166 in 2022, 150 in 2023, and 129 in 2024.
According to the latest data from 2025, which covers the period from January 1 to November 30, there were only 81 deaths.
Staff say that likely drivers for the decrease are “a changing drug supply, an increase in naloxone availability, and reduction in the at-risk population [due to previous deaths].”
Through Janssen’s motion, the Board of Health will also advocate to the province for increased investment in supportive housing, improved access to opioid agonist therapy (such as methadone), and enhanced investments in direct service provision for substance use and mental health supports.
A total of nine members of the 13-member Board of Health were in attendance for the vote on the motion, with all of them voting in favour.
Councillors Cameron Kroetsch (Ward 2 – Downtown Hamilton), Tammy Hwang (Ward 4 – Hamilton East), Mark Tadeson (Ward 11 – Glanbrook-Binbrook-Mount Hope), Craig Cassar (Ward 12 – Ancaster-West Flamborough), and Alex Wilson (Ward 13 – Dundas-Central Flamborough) all voted in favour of the motion.
Citizen members Janssen, Chelsea Kirkby (VP Strategic Initiatives and Program Development at YWCA Hamilton), Ameil Joseph (Associate Professor of the School of Social Work at McMaster University), and Andrew Cheung (Internal Medicine Clerkship Director at McMaster University) voted in favour as well.
The citizen members were appointed to the Board of Health by Hamilton City Council.
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.
