Toronto Public Health gets approval to open interim supervised-injection site

Health Canada has approved Toronto Public Health's application for an interim supervised injection site, CBC Toronto has learned.

Spokesperson Lenore Bromley said in an email that the city's health agency will soon open the site at 277 Victoria Street, the same building that will soon house apermanent supervised injection site.

Health Canada says the temporary location will open on Monday while the permanent site is under renovations.

• Toronto Public Health to open interim safe-injection site as early as this week
• Councillor'thrilled' that 3 supervised injection sites coming to Toronto

Permanent sites to open this fall

The approval comes just over a weekafter harm reduction advocates opened a pop-up supervised-injection site in Moss Park, warning drug users couldn't wait for the city's official sites to open.

Toronto Public Health's most recent data on opioid fatalities indicates that 87 people died from opioid use in the first half of 2016, with 135 deaths in 2015.