Report of the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment Study , 2012

Do Toronto and Ottawa need supervised consumption facilities? Is the implementation of supervised consumption facilities in Toronto or Ottawa feasible? To answer these questions, a scientific study was conducted, known as the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption Assessment (TOSCA), involving the collection and analysis of data from a variety of sources.

TOSCA focuses on the cities of Toronto and Ottawa since they account for approximately half of all people who inject drugs in Ontario. Toronto has the province’s largest number of people who use drugs but, unlike Vancouver, drug use is not as heavily concentrated in one area. Toronto also has relatively low HIV prevalence rates among people who inject drugs. In contrast, Ottawa has the highest new rate of HIV infections amongst people who inject drugs in Ontario.

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