Niagara region declares state of emergency for homelessness, mental health and opioid addiction

Niagara Region has declared a state of emergency for homelessness, mental health and opioid addiction.

The regional council voted almost unanimously during a Feb. 23 meeting to make the three separate declarations to help address the crises facing the region and ask for federal and provincial support. 

Paramedics in the region responded to 657 suspected opioid overdoses in 2022 and 1,001 in 2021. There were 49 in January.

The area is home to around 485,000 people and includes St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie. 

"Everyone has been touched by this ... We've had so many funerals of our kids, so many funerals of our loved ones," said Steve Borisenko, whose 21-year-old son Jacob died of an accidental drug overdose nearly two years ago.

The multi-pronged motion also included directions to:

• Ask the federal ministry of justice and federal minister of health to create a task force to explore regulating and decriminalizing all drugs in Canada.
• Urge the federal government to declare homelessness as a humanitarian crisis.
• Ask the Ford government to take action on measures raised by the Association of Local Public Health Agencies regarding drug and opioid use.
• Ask Ontario's housing minister to correct the funding allocation model for homelessness, as per the auditor general's report in 2021.
• Ask Ontario's health ministry and the chief executive officer of Ontario Health to fund gaps in mental health coverage as identified by Niagara Ontario Health Team's Mental Health and Addictions Working Group.

Borisenko said it's a big win.

"I am fully behind it and I think it's long overdue," he told CBC Hamilton.

Borisenko said his expectations on what can be achieved are tempered but is disappointed to hear Coun. Tom Insinna and Coun. Laura Ip voted down the idea of declaring a state of emergency.

Councillor concerned declaration won't lead to action

Ip told CBC Hamilton said while she supported sending most correspondences to different levels of government (only Insinna opposed all of them), she didn't support declaring the state of emergency because there's no guarantee of additional funding or other resources.

"I don't think it's going to do anything at all ... my concern is giving people false hope," she said.

Ip emphasized she didn't oppose it because she doesn't care.

"[People] think none of us in the decision-making roles have these experiences ... I lost my sister to suicide," she said.

Ip also noted how regional council is allotting $5.8 million into homelessness, mental health and addictions in its budget, while the provincial and federal governments haven't done much to support those issues in Niagara.

Borisenko, meanwhile, said he's optimistic the state of emergency will lead to some change and, at the very least, shows a willingness from councillors to try.

"It kind of puts your faith back in the government," Borisenko said.

In January, city councillors in nearby Hamilton asked its medical officer of health to look into whether the latest data on opioid deaths and overdoses meets the threshold for declaring a state of emergency there, with the hopes that such a declaration could bring additional provincial resources to address the issue.