Bill C-272 Drug Consumption Sites
C-272 An Act to Amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Supervised Drug Consumption Sites)
Bill Type: Private Member’s Bill
Bill Sponsor: Dan Mazier (Riding Mountain)
What is this Bill trying to do?
Supervised consumption sites are federally exempted facilities where people can use illegal drugs under medical supervision without being arrested — the goal is to prevent overdose deaths. This Federal government can grant exemptions allowing these sites to operate anywhere. This Bill adds one restriction: no supervised consumption site can be located within 500 metres of an elementary school, secondary school, daycare or playground. Sites already operating within that distance would have their exemptions revoked 180 days after the Bill passes. Mobile sites would be prohibited from providing services when within that distance.
Status: Outside the Order of Precedence — introduced March 26, 2026. This Bill hasn't passed yet.
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WHO GAINS POWER
- The restriction is written directly into the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act — no future Minister can grant an exemption that overrides the 500-metre rule without amending the Act itself
- Municipal governments and School Boards gain a statutory buffer zone they can point to when opposing site locations near schools
- ⚠️ "Playground" is not defined in the Bill — whether a playground means a designated municipal park structure, a schoolyard, a private daycare outdoor area or an informal play space will be determined by interpretation
WHO LOSES POWER
- The Minister of Health loses discretion to grant exemptions for sites near schools regardless of local circumstances, community support or harm reduction evidence
- ⚠️ Existing sites operating within 500 metres lose their exemptions automatically 180 days after royal assent — there is no appeal process, no grandfathering and no community consultation requirement before revocation
- Health authorities and harm reduction organizations lose the ability to site facilities based on where drug use is actually concentrated — which is often near transit hubs, shelters and services that may be close to schools in dense urban areas
WHO GAINS MONEY
- No direct financial mechanism in this Bill
- Municipalities that opposed nearby sites may avoid legal and political costs of fighting Federal exemptions
WHO LOSES MONEY
- Organizations operating existing sites within 500 metres face closure costs, relocation expenses and potential loss of funding tied to their current location
- ⚠️ Relocation may not be possible — in dense urban cores, finding an alternative site outside 500 metres of every school, daycare and playground while remaining accessible to the population the site serves may be geometrically impossible
- Public health systems absorb increased emergency costs if displaced sites result in more overdose deaths and more ambulance calls
THE CATCH
- ⚠️ 500 metres is a significant radius in a dense urban environment — in downtown Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, a 500-metre exclusion zone around every school, daycare and playground could effectively eliminate all viable locations for supervised consumption sites in the areas with the highest overdose rates
- ⚠️ Existing exemptions are revoked automatically — no process, no appeal, no transitional support — organizations that have built services, hired staff and established client relationships at a current location have 180 days to shut down or relocate, regardless of their impact on the community
- ⚠️ Mobile sites face an operational restriction, not a location ban — a mobile site can park outside the 500-metre zone but cannot provide services inside it. In practice this means a mobile unit serving a neighbourhood with a school nearby cannot operate where its clients are
- The Bill applies to sites serving people who use substances "obtained in a manner not authorized under this Act" — meaning illicit drugs. Medically supervised consumption of prescribed substances is not affected
- ⚠️ No evidence requirement is built into the Bill — the 500-metre rule applies uniformly regardless of whether any evidence exists that a particular site has harmed children or schools in its vicinity
- The Bill is currently outside the Order of Precedence — it has no scheduled debate time and may not advance this Parliament