I would like to thank all of the supporters of the Spot—this is the supervised consumption site—for their signatures on their petition. You can sort of hear them because they’re outside of the Legislature right now.

Did you know, Speaker, that in Sudbury the overdose death rate is three times higher than in the rest of Ontario?

They submitted an application in 2021 for funding for a supervised consumption site, which we call the Spot, but the government refuses to fund them. They were operated for a while by money that came from the municipality and then by donors, and while they were operated, they had over a thousand visits. They reversed all 17 overdoses that happened on-site, and they helped decrease the amount of overdoses throughout our community because they tested drugs.

I agree with the petition to immediately approve funding for the supervised consumption site in Sudbury, to save lives. I will add my name to it and ask my good page Myah to bring it to the Clerk.