(Quebec) Scalded by the controversy surrounding the Maison Benoît Labre, Quebec is considering adopting a law or regulation to prohibit the establishment of day centres for the homeless and supervised hard drug consumption sites near schools and daycares.
The Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, asked the Ministry of Health and Social Services and the Montreal Regional Public Health Department “to evaluate options to better supervise the establishment of these resources to prevent such situations from recurring in the future,” his office said in a written statement.
According to our information, these “options” are a law or regulation stipulating that a day centre for the homeless or a supervised drug consumption site cannot be set up near a school or daycare. In the case of Maison Benoît Labre, the minister maintains that he was involved too late in the process, when everything had already been decided. Quebec now wants to intervene upstream, by setting conditions to be met in order to open such services.
Minister Carmant says he is “aware of the issues of social cohabitation” in Montreal. He is working “in concert with the City of Montreal, local elected officials, community organizations and citizens’ committees to find solutions,” his office adds.
Last week, Quebec decided to support the City of Montreal’s request to relocate the day centre for the homeless from Maison Benoît Labre, located near an elementary school in the South-West.
The city’s request does not concern the supervised drug consumption centre, which has also been open since April. The cohabitation problems are mainly caused by the high traffic at the day centre, according to Montreal and the government.
Maison Benoît Labre wants to “continue to provide services that are essential and save lives,” its director said last week. The organization says it has “put several measures in place to limit the effects on the neighborhood.” It owns the building and the land, which makes it difficult to evict.
In the meantime, Quebec has adopted measures to reduce traffic at the day centre by transferring certain services to another organisation.
Regarding supervised drug consumption centres, Lionel Carmant had pointed out in May that municipalities choose their location and that Quebec provides social services. He mentioned the idea of no longer funding services where the City has not taken into account the proximity of children in choosing the site.
Near schools, “there shouldn’t be any,” says Legault
Last week, Ontario decided to ban supervised drug consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares. As a result, 10 of the 17 current sites will have to close their doors and change their purpose. A bill will also be introduced in the fall to prevent municipalities and organizations from opening new sites.
Prime Minister François Legault expressed his support for the measures taken by his counterpart Doug Ford in an interview with QUB radio on the occasion of the premiere of 99.5 FM in Montreal.
Near schools, “there shouldn’t be any. There shouldn’t have been any and there won’t be any,” he said.
The problem is, “nobody wants it in their yard.”
You have to try to find places that are actually not close to schools, not close to children. It’s never easy to find these places.
François Legault, Premier of Quebec, in an interview on 99.5 FM
The Prime Minister stressed that a supervised drug consumption site “saves lives,” according to experts. It helps prevent overdoses.
The Maison Benoît Labre drug consumption site had caused a stir in the National Assembly even before it opened. In October 2023, Lionel Carmant denounced the “not in my backyard” while the Liberal Party relayed the concerns of parents and called for the project to be cancelled.
The Liberals had asked to “prohibit the establishment of any inhalation or supervised injection site within 250 metres of a school or an educational child care centre”. They had presented a motion to this effect in the Salon bleu, but the government had refused to give its consent to debate it.
In June, the government gave the same reception to a motion from the Parti Québécois aimed at “putting in place a regulation to impose a minimum distance” between an injection site and a school or daycare.