The federal government has approved Ottawa's first supervised injection site.
The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre had been seeking permission to open and run such a site.
Health Canada officially approved their application Wednesday.
"This means that we are very, very close now in terms of operating a supervised injection service here," says Rob Boyd, director of the centre's harm reduction program.
Boyd says the greenlight from Health Canada allows the centre to move forward with renovations to create five injection stations at their facility.
The community health centre currently hands out clean supplies to about 700 drug users and Boyd says he expects that number to remain the same, or drop slightly when the supervised injection site opens.
"From the outside, our expectation is that you'll see very little change," says Boyd. "But people coming in to use the service, who are coming in to pick up harm reduction supplies for injecting drugs, will now have the option of actually injecting those drugs on site in our facility."
In a statement, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott said, “I am pleased to see the approval of a supervised consumption site in Ottawa, which will provide further support and tools to help address the overdose crisis. We are committed to working with all partners across the country to combat this crisis, and supervised consumption sites are an important part of our comprehensive response.”
Health Canada has approved 15 supervised drug consumption sites to date in Canada.
Mayor Jim Watson has issued a statement saying, "I have not been a supporter of supervised injection sites, as I would rather see scarce health dollars invested into treatment facilities, so that we may help those who struggle with addictions. I am also concerned about the potential of increased criminal activity near these sites. However, we gave responsibility for these health decisions to our public health board, who has supported Sandy Hill’s request for a supervised consumption site. I very much hope that my concerns are not realized and these citizens do get the help they need to overcome their challenging addictions.".