The director of public health in Quebec wants to set up supervised safe injection sites for drug addicts in cities across the province.

Dr. Alain Poirier said Thursday sites similar to the one in Vancouver could save the province millions of dollars in health-care costs by reducing the spread of Hepatitis C and HIV.

Poirier said the supervised sites would be easy to set up.

"In the province of Quebec, we already have 787 places where addicted people can exchange their material for clean material. So, in some of these organizations it would be easy to add a small room with personnel to supervise," he said.

Poirier said with that approach, supervised injection sites could soon open in the province's main cities, such as Montreal and Gatineau.

"I think that's a good way for people who inject drugs to get better help, and not to give their syringe to somebody else so they get the same problems," said Denise Laferriere, city councilor for the Hull sector of Gatineau.

She said there are several drug users in her area, and that's why she would welcome a supervised injection site.

Poirier said his first task is to make sure most of the population of the province agrees with that assessment.

He says the Quebec government will make its plans public this fall.