A/HRC/41/34/Add.2 Ontario should embrace the social approach adopted by other provinces, including measures such as inclusive design in classrooms, sensory-friendly spaces, improved workspaces for retainment, meaningful study of autistic persons’ needs, human rights regulation and enforcement, de-escalation alternatives and trauma-informed care, inclusion of autistic persons in social assistance and jobs legislation, as well as education for teachers, providers and policymakers that is informed by autistic people. 56. Regarding “problematic substance use”, the Special Rapporteur commends the federal and provincial authorities of Canada for their leadership in investing in modern human rights approaches at the domestic and international levels, and for taking steps towards a comprehensive public health approach towards drug policy. He welcomes the federal policy shift from preventing supervised consumption services to supporting their scaling-up. That shift involved amendments in 2017 to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that simplified the process of obtaining an exemption for the establishment of a supervised consumption facility. The national drug strategy was also updated to reintroduce the harm reduction pillar that had been removed in 2006 so that, together with the pillars of prevention, treatment and enforcement, proper supervised consumption sites might be supported and access to naloxone and to other harm reduction services might be expanded. 57. The number of exempted facilities that offer supervised consumption services has increased from 2 in 2016 (both in Vancouver) to 39 in April 2019 in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. The Special Rapporteur visited two well-organized sites in Vancouver that provided a supervised consumption centre and an overdose prevention site and noted the need to continue to replicate those types of services within British Columbia and across the country. 58. Canada faces an opioid overdose crisis. Official data26 reveals that, between January 2016 and September 2018, there were more than 10,300 opioid-related deaths. The Special Rapporteur considers that this crisis is of such gravity that it would not be an exaggeration to compare it with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He urges the authorities to keep up their efforts to support supervised consumption centres and to further consider a legal framework that does not require specific exemptions from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act if centres meet specific conditions. He calls upon Canada to redouble efforts to continue to address the root causes of the opioid crisis and its social and underlying determinants, including poverty, discrimination, early childhood adversities, access to adequate housing and safe water, as well as access to healthy occupational and environmental conditions. 59. The Special Rapporteur visited Ndinawemaaganag Endaawaad Inc. (Ndinawe) in Winnipeg, which provides safe and supportive services for young persons at risk, including those experiencing homelessness, sexual exploitation, family conflict, placement breakdown and mental health crises, many of whom are indigenous peoples. This commendable holistic model provides young people aged 11–17 with outreach, shelter and a wide-range of activities and services, including education, recreation, harm reduction, crisis intervention and stabilization. 60. At a Foundry centre in Vancouver, the Special Rapporteur observed the integrated model of care along a continuum of mental health and “substance use” services delivered by multiple partners. He appreciated the community-based “stepped care” model that addresses young people’s mental health conditions – from mild to severe – including early psychosis and “substance use”, through active monitoring and information, as well as services at three levels of intensity (low, short-term high and high intensity/specialist) with tailored, minimized and “invisible” referrals. 26 12 See https://infobase.phac-aspc.gc.ca/datalab/national-surveillance-opioidmortality.html?utm_source=HC%20BNews&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=launch_opioid_m ortality_report_EN.