The Quebec government has tabled a bill that would bar supervised drug consumption sites from being established within 150 metres of a school or daycare.
Bill 103, presented by Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant on Tuesday, would also allow the Health Ministry to set conditions on supervised consumption sites around cleanliness and safety, which, if unmet, could see their authorization revoked.
“The spirit behind this bill,” he said, “is that people don’t consume and sell drugs outside the site. That’s the problem I hear about when I go to [these sites].”
The bill follows backlash to supervised drug consumption sites across Canada, including the Maison Benoît-Labre, a supervised drug use site and homeless shelter in Montreal’s Sud-Ouest borough, which is located less than 100 metres from an elementary school and daycare.
Parents and nearby residents have flagged concerns about the area, and police statistics have shown that crime spiked around the Maison Benoît-Labre after the centre opened its supervised drug consumption site and day centre on Notre-Dame Street West.
Bill 103 would bar supervised drug use sites from operating within 150 metres of a school or daycare. If passed, the bill will require two of these sites to move, including the Maison Benoît-Labre in Montreal.
The new bill will require these sites to be reauthorized by Santé Quebec every four years.
There are 14 supervised consumption sites in Quebec. Two of them, the Maison Benoît-Labre and BRAS in the Outaouais region, are within the 150-metre radius of a school or daycare centre and would not, if the bill is passed, receive reauthorization after four years.
But Carmant said the four-year period should allow those centres time to move.
He said Quebec will likely need more supervised drug consumption sites as it faces the scourge of the toxic drug crisis.
There were 645 reported drug overdose deaths in Quebec in 2024.
“We believe in the use of these sites and I think we’ve made a strong effort to have a balanced bill,” Carmant said.
Michael MacKenzie, a professor of social work and pediatrics at McGill University who also lives near the Maison Benoît-Labre, said the issues in the community stem not from the safe consumption site nor the transitional housing services.
Rather, it is the day services and people congregating around the centre that have caused issues.
MacKenzie, who notes that he is in favour of safe supply, said there is nothing in the bill that will improve the situation around the centre.
“I’m not seeing anything in the new legislation where the minister is seeking to use his authority to hold organizations they fund accountable for their impacts on the community,” he said.
Carmant has said the day services at the centre will move.
