Brooklyn McNeil was an Ontario scholar, singer, artist and harm-reduction advocate. But the 22-year-old woman was also an injection drug addict who sadly died alone in June beside a dumpster in an east-end alley.

It shouldn’t have happened that way. McNeil was at the forefront of the movement to bring safe injection sites to Toronto, something that could have saved her life.

Now the city seems poised to get federal approval for the three proposed injection sites she fought for. They are already fully supported by the mayor, chief of police, city council, the board of health and the majority of Torontonians.

Happily, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott is already on record as publicly supporting supervised injection sites. “I want them to be made available because I know they save lives,” she said last month.

Too bad her Ontario counterpart isn’t quite as onside. When asked by the Star’s Jennifer Pagliaro whether the province would provide the necessary funding to get the proposed sites up and running, Health Minister Eric Hoskins remained silent.

That’s unacceptable. This country is in the midst of an epidemic of drug overdoses. Toronto alone has witnessed a 77-per-cent increase in overdose deaths between 2004 and 2014. In 2014, alone, there was a record 258 overdose deaths.

Safe injection sites can help:

They are staffed with nurses who can deliver Naloxone, which blocks or reverses the effects of opioid medications, if someone does overdose.

They reduce the risk of infectious diseases being spread by dirty needles. A 2012 study found that 61 per cent of injection drug users tested positive for hepatitis C, while 5 per cent tested positive for HIV.

They help addicts access other health and social services which can keep them off the streets and help them overcome their addictions.

Neighbourhoods habituated by addicts benefit as well. As Councillor Joe Cressy, chair of the city’s drug strategy implementation panel, has said, supervised sites “move drug use and needles from our streets, our parks, our backyards and our coffee shops.”

Toronto has approved three sites in community health clinics already serving people who inject drugs. They include The Works, Queen West-Central Community Health Clinic, and South Riverdale Community Health Clinic.

But the city needs $350,000 to build cubicles and a waiting room in each location and $1.8 million in annual operating costs from the province to get them up and running.

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As Cressy points out: “The reality, when it comes to overdoses, is an all-hands-on-deck approach is required.”

The province needs to get on board.