‘Incredibly disingenuous:’ Ottawa councillor questions health minister on crime stats discrepancy

An Ottawa councillor is questioning Ontario’s health minister about the crime stats used to close a local supervised consumption site.

Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster questioned Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones Tuesday about a discrepancy with crime statistics the province said it used to justify to close the supervised consumption site at the Somerset West Community Health Centre in Ottawa.

The province had said last year the site had to close because it was within 200 metres of a daycare and that the crime rate near the site was 250 per cent higher than the rest of the city.

At the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in 2024, Jones said violent crime was up 146 per cent near the Eccles Street location.

However, crime statistics obtained from the Ottawa Police Service through a CTV News Ottawa freedom of information request show the crime rate and the number of violent crimes reported to in 2023 were not as high as the minister suggested.

The Ottawa Police Service said the crime rate in 2023 for the West Centretown neighbourhood, where 55 Eccles St. is located, was only 14 per cent higher than the citywide average

At the AMO conference Tuesday, Troster lined up with other elected officials to ask questions.

“What are you going to do to help Ottawa’s Chinatown that has now been plunged into absolute chaos since the supervised consumption site was forced to close?” she asked the minister.

Jones did not comment on the source of the statistics or the discrepancy in her answer.

• Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters

“So, with the greatest of respect, I never, ever want to have a mother who is killed because she happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in front of a consumption site in the province of Ontario,” Jones said, referring to the 2023 death of a woman who was struck by a stray bullet near a Toronto safe consumption site.

“Our entire goal as a government, and I have to say, because of the feedback we heard from our municipal partners, said we need to do something different.”

Troster said the response wasn’t good enough.

“If you’re closing supervised consumption sites based on ideology and not evidence, just say so,” Troster told CTV News Ottawa.

“But lying and making up statistics that they have been unable to provide a source for is incredibly disingenuous and it’s shameful as far as I’m concerned.”

Police also said there were 20 violent crimes reported in the 200 metres around 55 Eccles St. in 2023, down from 26 in 2022, a 23 per cent decline. This represents 0.2 per cent of all violent crimes reported citywide in 2023.

The number of violent crimes reported in 2017, the year prior to the supervised consumption site opening, was 12.

CTV News has repeatedly asked Jones’s office for the source of the statistics shared in 2024 but has yet to receive a response.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Ted Raymond

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App