Health Canada sat on more than 200 complaints about crime around supervised consumption sites, records show
The federal government appears to have brushed off hundreds of complaints about crime surrounding so-called 'safe-injection' sites.
The Liberal federal government has been warned repeatedly for years about drug dealing, break-ins, vandalism and harassment around supervised consumption sites, according to a newly released trove of complaints obtained through an Order Paper question.
In Q-511, Conservative MP Burton Bailey (Red Deer) asked Health Canada how many reports about “infringements to public health or public safety” the department has received in relation to supervised consumption sites since 2015, and how many sites have been shut down for public safety reasons. The written answer, signed December 8, 2025 by Health Canada on behalf of the Minister of Health shows Ottawa sitting on a long list of serious complaints and keeping no central record of closures.
More than 200 incident complaints on file
Health Canada says it does not operate or directly fund supervised consumption sites and that they fall under provincial jurisdiction. But it admits it “keeps on file” complaints that arrive through its general inbox.
From 2017 to 2025, the department catalogued 201 individual complaint files tied to specific locations across the country. Those files include:
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147 references to public nuisance
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103 references to aggression
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92 references to loitering
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90 references to litter
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76 complaints explicitly mentioning drug dealing
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68 complaints mentioning property damage
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49 complaints mentioning a break-in
There are also nearly 20 complaints categorized as “Other” and at least one as “general concerns,” typically describing broader worries about neighbourhood safety.
In other words, well over a third of all complaints on Health Canada’s own list explicitly mention drug dealing, and roughly a quarter involve alleged break-ins.
The worst hot spots
The complaints are not evenly spread.
The single worst hot spot in the federal file is Calgary’s Sheldon M. Chumir Centre, which alone accounts for 56 complaint entries. Between late 2018 and 2022, neighbours and nearby businesses repeatedly reported combinations of drug dealing, public nuisance, aggression, break-ins, property damage, loitering and constant litter. Many days show multiple complaints logged on the same date.
The Parkdale Supervised Consumption Service in Toronto is close behind, with 35 complaint entries in 2025 alone. In just a few months, Health Canada’s file shows a drumbeat of allegations around the Parkdale site: drug dealing, loitering, repeated break-ins, public nuisance, aggression and property damage. On several dates in September and October 2025, multiple complaints were filed on the same day.
Ottawa’s Sandy Hill Community Health Centre appears 27 times, with a similar pattern of public nuisance, aggression, property damage, break-ins and drug dealing recorded throughout 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Kingston’s Integrated Care Hub shows up 18 times, with a cluster of complaints in 2020–2021 describing drug dealing, litter, loitering, repeated break-ins and property damage. Toronto’s South Riverdale Community Health Centre appears 13 times, again with a high share of drug-dealing and aggression complaints.
Other sites flagged in the federal list include:
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Arches Lethbridge in Alberta, with complaints about drug dealing, loitering, public nuisance, litter and property damage starting in 2018;
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Northreach Mobile Supervised Consumption Service in Alberta, with multiple complaints in 2018 mentioning drug dealing, break-ins, public nuisance and aggression;
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Spectre de rue and CACTUS Montréal in Quebec, with repeated complaints about drug dealing, public nuisance, aggression and property damage;
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London, Ontario’s Regional HIV/AIDS Connection fixed sites on Simcoe and York streets, with complaints about drug dealing, break-ins, aggression and public nuisance in 2018;
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Surrey’s Quibble Creek Sobering and Assessment Centre, flagged in 2017 for drug dealing, break-ins, property damage and public nuisance.
In almost every case, the pattern is the same: neighbours complaining to Health Canada that dealers are exploiting the site and that the area around it has become a magnet for crime and disorder.
Government admits: no central tracking of closures
Despite all of this, on the question that really matters — how many supervised consumption sites have actually been shut down due to public health or safety concerns — Health Canada simply shrugs.
The department states that because the sites fall under provincial and territorial jurisdiction and are not directly run or funded by Health Canada, it “does not centrally track data on the permanent closures of safe consumption sites.” In other words, Ottawa has kept a detailed list of complaints, but claims to have no national inventory of which problem sites have been forced to close or whether any federal exemptions were pulled over safety concerns.
The response also notes that “in most cases” correspondence is just people expressing views about the presence of the site. But the department’s own annex tells a different story: page after page of serious, specific allegations about criminal activity, property damage and unsafe conditions immediately around supervised consumption facilities.
For communities living beside these facilities, it amounts to a federal policy of “see no evil, track no closures.”
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Alberta Bureau Chief for Rebel News and host of the weekly The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. She's a mother of three, conservative activist, and the author of best-selling books including Stop Notley.
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COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-12-09 19:55:36 -0500The rot and disrespect for citizens will continue until the Liberals are deposed.
