Item - 2025.HL29.1

The Board of Health:

1. Continued to recognize the drug toxicity epidemic as a public health crisis due to ongoing high levels of opioid toxicity deaths in Toronto.

2. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to explore opportunities to collaborate with researchers, City of Toronto divisions and other organizations, as appropriate, to assess the effects of changes in the mental health and substance use landscape, and identify potential service adaptations that promote public health and mitigate harms for affected individuals.

3. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to work with community partners, City divisions and others to explore and promote funding options, including federal emergency response funding, that support people who use drugs, the organizations that serve them, and other community-based responses.

4. Requested the Province of Ontario to amend current regulations to permit unregulated health professionals to administer oxygen in appropriate settings to respond to overdoses, due to changes in the unregulated drug supply.

5. Requested the Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada to develop strategies for reducing harms associated with alcohol through evidence-based policies such as regulations on pricing, marketing, and availability, and for expanding treatment options.

6. Requested the Government of Canada to consider providing new mechanisms that allow the operation of supervised consumption services, including new options for securing exemptions to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

7. Requested the Province of Ontario to:

a. reinstate funding for the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre Consumption and Treatment Services site; and

b. increase funding for other Consumption and Treatment Services sites and other organizations who serve people who use drugs to address the increased demand for services.

The Associate Director, Stakeholder Relations and Health Equity, Strategy and Clinical Services, Toronto Public Health, and the Co-Chair, SCS Closures Workgroup and the Co-Chair, Alcohol Workgroup, Our Health, Our City Implementation Panel gave a presentation on Our Health Our City: Annual Progress Report 2025.

Our Health, Our City: A Mental Health, Substance Use, Harm Reduction and Treatment Strategy for Toronto (OHOC) advances a compassionate, equitable and evidence-based plan to improve mental health and wellbeing and to reduce substance use related harms across the city.

The Strategy outlines strategic goals and recommended actions for government, health care leaders, schools, businesses, civil society and all Torontonians. This report provides updates on the current mental health and substance use landscape, and progress on the Strategy's goals in 2025 with a focus on current priorities identified by the Our Health, Our City: A Mental Health, Substance Use, Harm Reduction and Treatment Strategy for Toronto Implementation Panel. It also provides an update on the implementation of the City of Toronto's Downtown Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub. 

The recommendations in this report respond to input provided through work on the Our Health, Our City: A Mental Health, Substance Use, Harm Reduction and Treatment Strategy for Toronto Strategy in 2025 and identify areas for collaborative efforts to address Toronto's evolving mental health and substance use landscape.