Ontario is moving to slam the door shut on pay-for-blood clinics before they even open up for business.

Health Minister Deb Matthews said Friday that proposed legislation will be introduced in early spring that will stop Canadian Plasma Resources from opening up shop in Toronto and Hamilton.

“They haven’t started up business yet so that why we moving quickly now to make sure they can’t,” Matthews told the Star.

“They are located pretty poor neighbourhoods, so it is pretty clear who their target is,” she said.

While Ontario has opposed to it, there is no legislation specifically prohibiting paying for blood or plasma donations in Ontario.

“The Ontario government’s decision to ban paid plasma clinics is a great relief to Canadians who suffered from tainted blood through past mistakes. Ontario is demonstrating that it has heeded the lessons of the past and is committed to protecting our volunteer blood supply system,” long-time tainted blood activist Mike McCarthy told the Star.

In an op-ed piece in the Toronto Star a year ago, McCarthy recalled how two decades ago, 30,000 Canadians who were recipients of tainted blood and plasma products became infected with HIV and hepatitis C.

Some of that blood was purchased from “blood brokers” whose supplies came from Arkansas prisons, L.A.’s “skid row” and Russian funeral homes, wrote McCarthy, a hemophiliac who was infected.

If passed, the new legislation would:

Prohibit payments to individuals for their blood and plasma including reimbursement of expenses or other forms of compensation.

Strengthen the government’s ability to enforce the law in the case of violations.

Expand the criteria considered for licensing blood collection facilities.

In the interim, the government is posting two proposed regulatory amendments that would prohibit any licensed lab or specimen collection centre from paying for blood and plasma donations, including reimbursement of expenses.

The minority Liberal government says this position is consistent with the 1997 Krever Commission’s report on Canada’s blood system that recommended donors of blood and plasma should not be paid for their donations, except in rare circumstances.

Matthews said the delay in dealing with this issue was the result of the federal government finally deciding it was a provincial matter and that the private clinics were knocking at the door.

“It was an issue we thought Health Canada would deal with but it was only recently that they told us, ‘It’s over to you, provinces,’ that they don’t have a position on it,” she said.

Canadian Plasma Resources issued a statement claiming there is no evidence that compensating plasma donors weakens the voluntary donor system, noting that Manitoba has allowed paid plasma donations for 25 years.

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“Paid plasma donations help save patient’s lives” Canadian Plasma Resources CEO Dr. Barzin Bahardoust said in the statement.

Canadian Doctors for Medicare said the proposed ban is a substantial win for the public interest.

“As our organization has been emphasizing since paid clinics began emerging in Ontario in advance of Health Canada’s approval, a shift toward a paid-donation system could represent significant risks for both patients and donors,” said Dr. Ryan Meili, vice-chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare.