Minutes Confirmed on February 23, 2026

This meeting of the Board of Health was conducted with members participating in person and remotely.

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.

The Board of Health:

1. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to share and engage with relevant community and health sector partners and City of Toronto divisions on the findings in the report (November 19, 2025) from the Medical Officer of Health, to support decision-making and improve the health of Toronto residents.

The Associate Medical Officer of Health gave a presentation on Updated Mortality Trends for Residents of Toronto.

Mortality is a key indicator of population health, reflecting the ultimate impact of disease and other health-related factors. Monitoring mortality rates supports public health planning, prevention, and intervention efforts.

Toronto Public Health (TPH) recently posted a summary of updated mortality trends for Toronto residents, including data from 2014 to 2023, from Vital Statistics death records. This summary highlights key mortality trends, including Toronto's overall ranking compared to other regions in Ontario, differences in mortality by socio-demographic characteristics, as well as patterns and causes of mortality over time. The findings reinforce the importance of ongoing mortality surveillance and improved socio-demographic data in death records, to target public health interventions to reduce preventable deaths and health inequities in Toronto.

Toronto Public Health’s Strategic Plan 2024-2028 guides focused actions to reduce the leading causes of mortality in Toronto, including COVID-19 and accidental poisoning. Evidence-informed programming, advocacy and cross-sector collaboration support efforts to advance the strategic plan's priorities including strengthening health protection, disease prevention, and emergency preparedness; promote the conditions to support positive mental health and reduce the harms of substance use; and advocate to advance health equity. Toronto Public Health’s COVID-19 pandemic response and the City-wide Our Health, Our City: A Mental Health, Substance Use, Harm Reduction and Treatment Strategy exemplify adaptive, data-driven public health action.

Toronto Public Health is committed to advocating and advancing health equity through assessing evidence, using population health assessment to identify and report on health inequities, and strengthening multi-sectoral partnerships. 

The Board of Health:

1. Endorsed the interim approach, as outlined in the report (November 7, 2025) from the Medical Officer of Health, for the Toronto Urban Health Fund Grant Program for the 2026 and 2027 funding cycles while changes to the Toronto Urban Health Fund Grant Program are considered for the 2028 funding cycle.

2. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to identify another organization or organizations to address any gaps in services and supports most impacted by the closing of AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT), for gay, bisexual, queer and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM), including those who use substances by February 28, 2026.

3. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to report to the Board of Health in 2027 with proposed changes to the Toronto Urban Health Fund Grant Program for the 2028 funding cycle.

The Toronto Urban Health Fund (TUHF) administers $4.2 million in funding to organizations: 1) A community grant program with a budget of $3.3 million, and 2) Purchase of service agreements with five organizations to deliver sexual health programs and services totalling $0.9 million.

The Toronto Urban Health Fund grant program provides grant funding to grassroots and community-based organizations (CBOs) to deliver culturally appropriate, evidence-based HIV and substance use prevention programs and services to underserved groups.

On July 4, 2023, the Board of Health directed the Medical Officer of Health to review the Toronto Urban Health Fund grant program and consult with stakeholders to ensure that recommendations are community- and data-informed. This report summarizes the findings from Toronto Public Health’s (TPH) review of the Toronto Urban Health Fund grant program.

Implementing many of the findings from the program review will require additional consideration, planning and stakeholder consultation and require sufficient notice to impacted program stakeholders. Toronto Public Health will return to the Board of Health in 2027 with proposed changes to the Toronto Urban Health Fund grant program for the 2028 funding cycle.

While Toronto Public Health prepares to implement the findings from the Program Review, Toronto Public Health is proposing an interim approach: 1) streamline the grants administration process for the 2026 and 2027 funding cycles, and 2) fund adaptations or extensions of currently funded one- and three-year projects that are responding to community needs and were approved by the Board of Health in 2024 and 2025. Toronto Public Health will recommend adapted or extended projects for 2026 and 2027 funding to the Board of Health in Q2, 2026.

The Board of Health received the Item for information.

City Council on October 8 and 9, 2025, adopted Item MM33.22 and, in so doing, has requested the Board of Health to consider developing a road map to provide a pilot school-based mobile eye testing program on an opt in basis to school-age children to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to excel in the classroom by the first quarter of 2026.

Announcements

The Chair acknowledged that the Board of Health was meeting on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The Chair also acknowledged that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.

The Chair further acknowledged that not all people came to these lands as migrants and settlers, and specifically acknowledged those who came here involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. In support of the City of Toronto's ongoing efforts to confront anti-Black racism, the Chair paid tribute to those ancestors of African, Caribbean and Black origin and descent.

The Chair welcomed new Board of Health Director, Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin.

Where the Directors of the Board of Health listed in the attendance for this meeting participated remotely, they were counted for quorum as permitted by Section 189(4.2) of the City of Toronto Act, 2006, and the Board's Procedures, as amended.