The leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party says he is not in favour of providing people with addictions a supervised environment in which to use narcotics without fear of a fatal overdose.
Doug Ford told reporters in Sarnia on Friday that he opposes supervised consumption sites.
"We don't have enough rehabilitation. I ask anyone out there, if your son, daughter or loved one ever had an addiction, would you want them to go into a little area and do more drugs? I am dead against that," he said. "But I fully understand there's a small epidemic out there. We have to help these people. We can't just keep feeding them and feeding them. We need to get them help. We'll make sure we have the resources to get them help, because it costs an absolute fortune to have someone go to rehab right now."
London currently has a temporary supervised consumption site, which the Middlesex London Health Unit calls a Temporary Overdose Prevention Site, and efforts continue to find a site for a permanent facility. The provincial government provided $130,700 in funding for the temporary site. In all, the province has approved funding for seven supervised consumption sites.