Dear Mr. Levy, Our needle exchange program, called The Works, has operated on Victoria Street in the Ryerson neighbourhood since 1994, with much success.

We serve clients here at our office, and we have over 30 community agencies throughout Toronto under contract to provide harm reduction services.

In addition, we have three vans that tour the city, assisting people on the street.

In 2006, The Works and the affiliated agencies had more than 20,000 visits for needle exchange services.

The Works is one of the most successful needle exchange programs in Canada.

Provision of clean needles has helped keep the HIV rate for injection drug users in Toronto below 10 per cent – which is extremely hard to achieve in large urban centres.

The Works has (also) helped integrate an extremely marginalized population into this downtown area, without a negative impact on the surrounding community.

We are proud of the success of The Works and we are proud to

be part of the neighbourhood.

We would be pleased to meet with you and tell you more about our work to help those in need.

Dr. David McKeown, medical officer of health, Toronto Public Health