Parkdale overdose prevention site to close ahead of bad fall weather

An overdose prevention site that has been operating since August under a series of tents in a Parkdale parkette will close on Wednesday over concerns about the impact fall weather will have on the makeshift facility.

The Toronto Overdose Prevention Society announced on Tuesday that it will wrap up operations in the Dunn Avenue Parkette over concerns about the potential impact of October rain and wind.

The society said poor weather over the last several weeks, as well as experience last year at its facility in Moss Park, suggest it would be unsafe to continue operating. On Sunday evening, for example, the tents could not be set up in Parkdale because high winds were upending them.

"We are not taking this decision lightly, but the changing weather, and most importantly, the unwillingness of the current government to work with community members trying to save lives calls for different strategies," the society's Steph Massey said in a news release.

Late last month, the federal government gave Ontario a six-month extension to figure out what it plans to do about overdose prevention sites in Ontario. That extension allowed sites already operating to continue to do so.

Closure comes during provincial review of sites

The province had announced this summer it was halting the opening of new overdose prevention sites while it conducted a review, and initially said it would make its final decision by the end of September. But Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott has not indicated when she will issue her recommendations.

According to the society, three people die from preventable opioid overdoses each day in Ontario and 189 have died since Ontario began its review of overdose prevention sites nine weeks ago.

"Overdose prevention sites are essential health services, meeting a vital need within communities during this overdose crisis. They belong in community health centres, in the organizations where people who use drugs access services, and in the buildings where they live," the society's Zoe Dodd said in the release.

"We need to be expanding, rather than scaling back these life-saving services in this ongoing overdose crisis."

In its release, the society made two requests of the federal government. It isasking that it immediately provide interim exemptions and funding to overdose prevention sites in Ontario that have already been approved, including one at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre that was supposed to operate out of a trailer. That facility has gone unused since the province announced its review of overdose prevention sites.

The society is also asking the federal government to expedite reviews of five applications for overdose prevention sites that were sent to the Ontario government but have languished during the review.