Residents in 4 major Canadian cities split on whether safe injection sites are helping: CityNews poll

Residents across four major cities in Canada are split on whether safe injection sites are helping those who are addicted to drugs, according to a new poll, as provinces continue to try and address the deadly opioid crisis.

The poll, conducted by Maru Public Opinion exclusively for CityNews, found despite the split, the majority of residents in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver, 62 per cent believe the safe injection sites in their city are well-run by those who supervise them.

Those in Toronto were the most supportive of safe injection sites with 66 per cent agreeing they helped those addicted to drugs and 58 per cent felt they were well-run.

That number dropped in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton with 51 per cent, 48 per cent and 47 per cent respectively, believing the injection sites were helping those addicted to drugs.

And a high majority, an average of 71 per cent across all four cities, supported the objective of the sites but said it was time to find another way to do so and an average of 53 per cent of those polled said the sites should be shut down completely.

When those polled were asked to list the top issues facing their city right now, the average found that one in 10 residents said the opioid crisis, supervised injection sites and other drug-related issues.

And in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, drugs were the top crime issue in their cities.

In Toronto, 61 per cent said adequate consideration and input is given to communities where the sites are placed. That number dropped in Vancouver with just 53 per cent agreeing, followed by both Calgary and Edmonton at 52 per cent.

Residents in all four cities agreed with keeping the sites away from schools and daycares with 89 per cent of those in Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton and 92 per cent in Calgary agreed.

The Ontario government recently announced restrictions on supervised drug consumption sites, including a ban on the sites within 200 metres of schools and childcare centres, which will lead to the closure of five Toronto facilities.

The move was denounced by Toronto Public Health, saying the closure will lead to more drug deaths and public drug use while putting a greater strain on emergency services as they race to more overdose calls.

There were 524 opioid toxicity deaths in Toronto last year.

When the announcement was made, concerns were raised by harm reduction advocates in Alberta that their province would follow suit and the remaining seven sites could be at risk.

In Vancouver, the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV and AIDS finished construction on the first indoor supervised inhalation site aimed at reducing drug poisonings and disease transmission and decreasing drug use in public.

Nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2023 came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, often outdoors, in a tent.

The centre has been running a supervised injection site for years which sees more than a thousand people monthly and last month resuscitated five people who were overdosing.

The poll was conducted between August 29-September 6, 2024, among a random selection of 1,801 Canadian adults who are Unlock Surveys online panelists. Respondents were surveyed within the specific cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. Probability samples of this size have an estimated margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.