Ontario will begin reviewing avenues to implement involuntary addiction treatment for people involved in the correctional system, whether they are incarcerated or on parole.
The decision was part of a broader bill tabled Thursday aimed at getting tougher on crime.
However, critics say that it undermines confidence in the province’s judicial system.
According to the latest available data, over 2,600 people died from opioids in 2023, marking a 50 per cent increase in deaths compared to 2019.
Officials will look into how involuntary addiction treatment would cost and what resources will be necessary to provide for those in jail, on probation and parole.
The province is also examining what it would need from the federal government to enact such measures.
According to the ministry, a plan will be laid before the cabinet by this fall.
Involuntary treatment has been the subject of controversy with critics arguing that it rarely works and that addiction treatment is far more successful when the person is voluntarily ready to quit.
“Look, there’s no doubt that there has been an increase in the use of illegal and, frankly, deadly drugs in our communities and, yes, in our corrections facilities,” Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones told reporters Thursday.
“We need to do the work to make sure that any programs that we bring forward are actually going to help people.”
Measures included in the justice bill also involve allowing restraining orders against domestic violence perpetrators to be more accessible and permitting police further opportunities to seize electronic devices used to commit auto theft.
The bill would also hold landlords responsible who knowingly allow their premises to be used for illegal drug activity.
Additionally, people who wear ankle monitors while on parole would have to pay for them.
Two senior government sources have told media that the Ford government is looking to install an involuntary addiction treatment program akin to the British Columbia model, which can mandate treatment for people with simultaneous mental health challenges.
B.C announced the opening of a 10-unit facility for involuntary treatment last week for people currently in custody at the Surrey Pretrial Centre, with a second facility coming in the near future.