A petition calling for Hamilton City Council to designate public libraries as safe drug consumption sites will be debated at the upcoming meeting of Hamilton’s Public Health Sub-Committee.
The 115 signatories want the City of Hamilton to create and fund ‘safe drug consumption sites’ outside Hamilton’s public libraries.
The petition requests that the City install heated shelters, similar to those used for bus stops, outside libraries to reduce indoor drug use. It states that there should be “no cameras” monitoring these spaces because trained staff should be present at all times.
The petition states that the City should begin at the Central, Barton, and Red Hill branches.
It also calls for increasing the “availability of social services AT” libraries. [Petition’s emphasis.]
The provincial government closed Hamilton’s supervised consumption site as part of a province-wide policy change to implement treatment-focused HART sites, which Premier Doug Ford says will better assist people to get supports towards permanent housing and to address addictions.
Petitioner Tyler Dhaliwal will delegate and present the petition to the committee.
The Committee will meet on Monday, April 28, 2025, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Public correspondence can be sent to clerks@hamilton.ca, or delegation requests made on the City website, until 12:00 noon on Friday.
Addendum:
Ward 2 Councillor Cameron Kroetsch, who chairs the Public Health Sub-Committee, posted to Facebook this evening to state the petitioners have the right to delegate to Council, and that the petition is included in the agenda package “so everyone could see it.”
“It’s there for information, not for approval, just so the citizen members of the Sub-Committee didn’t have trouble finding it. I did this to ensure it was accessible and easy to find and for no other reason,” he writes.
The petition is captured in the image below.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: April 23, 2025
Last updated: April 23, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
v. 1.1.0 added Facebook comments posted by Clr Kroetsch
Is this a joke??? So you mean to tell me when I take my toddler to the library we have to share this space with drug addicts? This is absolutely the most rediculous suggestion for a safe space for drug users I’v ever heard. Please stop trying to make this ok.
Not a good idea considering children use the library, has to be a better idea than this.
This sounds like a scam to get DoFo to close libraries.
Well I’m glad I’m retired from the library I would like to know who the 115 signatures are from! The drug users themselves! Come on give your heads a shake and wake up! You’re encouraging them to take drugs. Setup places for them to stop taking drugs. Hamilton is becoming a drug fest!
Well said. I totally agree. They seem to have more rights than people that don’t take drugs instead of helping the get clean they’re encouraging them to take drugs.
Are the petitioners tone deaf? They complain about current sites proximity to schools only to suggest the alternative be libraries??? Literally a service which is applicable to and often catered to youth? This should not be a service that falls within the responsibility or jurisdiction of the library. Give me a break.
Sounds like a great idea that has no chance whatsoever of backfiring tremendously.
Insanity,that’s all I got.
This is actually disgusting. This petition is letting drug addicts take over our public libraries. Places designed for everyone to get information and learn, read those books you can’t afford, do your school work in peace. A place where kids go to do programs such as summer reading and storytime so instead of our youth being glued to the tv they have other forms of fun and safe spots to make friends. Saying yes to this means you are saying yes to 4 year olds watching people shoot up and all your kids coming across more dirty needles. I’ve found needles from the greasiest parts of hamilton all the way into this nicest sections of Stoney Creek. Yes make some sort of safe drug consumption site but put it out of the way so the kids and people do not have to deal with them. Do not taint our libraries!!!!
To put it bluntly. Growing up in hamilton as a kid was great place to be and safe place to be could go anywhere and do anything and as long as you were home be for the street light come on even though we all pushed the boundaries on that one with out having a worry about what was lurking around. Now as an adult with kid’s of my own it now a constant worrying about where we go. Can’t go the park, can’t go on hiking trails. Can’t even walk down the street etc. instead is be come I’ll drive you there and call me when your ready to go home. No you can’t
Go to the park, no we cant go for a hike unless we go to another city or town it’s like opening your front door and walking into a scene from the walking dead sorry for being blunt. It’s disgusting what the city has be come and an embarrassment. It’s to the point where I hate this city and want absolutely nothing to with anymore. So yeah to sum it all up I 100% disagree with make public libraries or near them for safe injection safe. There are place for people to go and learn, research, read and study safely without having to step over or around some strung out infront of a public library
This petition will go right in the bin. Too much to unwrap, but it in an incredibly dumb idea.