Ontario Premier Ford Signals Openness to Mandatory Addiction Treatment Programs

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he is open to the possibility of implementing involuntary addiction treatment in the province.

Ontario’s Big City Mayors group has again called upon the province to re-evaluate existing mental health laws with the aim of broadening the scope of involuntary treatment.

The province has experienced a rise in homelessness and addiction since the COVID-19 pandemic, and municipalities are now shouldering the majority of the financial burden.

Ford told reporters during a Sept. 10 press briefing that he would consider changing those laws to address the homelessness, mental health, and addiction crisis many Ontario cities are struggling with.

“I’d be open to it as long as we can help them and help the communities,” Ford said from Queen’s Park after announcing a cabinet shuffle that includes a new associate minister of mental health, Michelle Cooper.

The provincial government is currently looking into the issue of involuntary mental health and addiction treatment within jails but has yet to advance any form of legislation.

Ford said one of the first steps is to consult with the mayors on the issue before making decisions on forcing addicts into treatment.

Ford said he has received pictures from across the province of addicts passed out on city sidewalks. He recalled incidents on University Avenue, a major north-south boulevard in downtown Toronto, of addicts falling off the sidewalk into traffic.

The group represents 29 major cities in Ontario with populations of 100,000 or more and is headed by Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones has said on several occasions she prefers voluntary treatment and is consulting with experts on the issue, but has noted that she has not ruled out the idea.

The mayors again penned a letter to the province last month to ask for help.

“The reality is the crisis continues to worsen, and more people than ever are struggling across our province,” the group wrote on Aug. 16. “Lives are at stake and the time to act is now.”

Several Ontario municipalities have officially declared local states of emergency or crises in the past few years in response to escalating drug overdoses, homelessness, and mental health strains.

Belleville declared a state of emergency in February 2024 following an unprecedented surge of 17 overdoses in less than 24 hours nearly a year after Hamilton’s city council did the same in response to opioid addiction and homelessness.

Kingston and the Regional Municipality of Niagara have similarly declared formal states of emergency in 2024 due to the compounding pressures of the toxic drug and homelessness crises.

Several cities in the Greater Toronto Area have also been hard hit, as have northern communities like Thunder Bay.

The Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario documented 219 suspected drug-related fatalities in the province in July, with a total of 668 suspected drug-related deaths recorded from May to July, similar to numbers earlier that year and in 2025.

Stats from the coroner’s office show this year’s numbers are down 33 percent from 2021’s but remain 23 percent higher than they were in 2018.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.