The day after Toronto Mayor John Tory called an emergency meeting to address the city’s recent spike in overdoses, comes word that construction will begin next week on the first of three supervised injection sites in the city.

Plans call for it to open sometime this fall.

Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Eileen de Villa says ”We know that adding these life-saving health services to our existing services will help ensure that people are not alone when they inject drugs and that medically trained staff are available to intervene if someone does overdose.  Overdose deaths are preventable.”

Police suspect there have been at least six such deaths the past week and believe the deadly opioid fentanyl may have played a role.

All paramedics already carry naloxone kits, but the city says all firefighters will have access to the antidote by the end of September.

Police have also been asked to consider giving them to some officers.