The city announced today that the construction on one of three safe injection sites in Toronto is set to begin next week moving forward on a commitment to speed up the opening of the facilities to combat a recent spike in suspected opioid-related deaths.
Many Canadian cities have grappled with drug overdose deaths in recent months.
Toronto Public Health’s most recent preliminary data indicates there were 87 opioid-related deaths in the city in the first six months of 2016, and there were 135 opioid-related deaths in 2015.