The Ford government has tabled omnibus legislation that will ban supervised consumption sites near schools or child care centres and force municipalities to ask the province for permission to approach the federal government for the same services.
On Monday, the government tabled the Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act, which codifies a ban on supervised consumption sites as part of a broader bill introducing changes related to auto theft and sex offenders.
The bill will close 10 supervised consumption sites in Ontario, including five in Toronto.
It will also require municipalities to seek permission from the province if they want to participate in federal programs, including an exception to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that allows towns or cities to operate supervised consumption sites.
While the legislation allows Ontario to greenlight municipal requests to the feds to open supervised consumption sites through that mechanism, Minister of Health Sylvia Jones said she didn’t plan to approve the requests.
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