Drug toxicity kills 7 people a day in Ontario. Why aren't major parties addressing it more this election?
Advocate for supervised consumption says issue's taken back seat in election campaign
In northern Ontario's largest city, the drug toxicity crisis can sometimes feel like a battlefield, with white crosses lined up on a bustling downtown corner and anxious family members flooding social media for news of their loved ones.
Accidental overdoses are the leading cause of death for adults under 50 years old in the Greater Sudbury area, according to the local hospital.
It's a similar situation across the region.
Ontario's highest drug toxicity mortality rates are all in northern Ontario: Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay have dominated the ranking for years.
Provincewide, the coroner's office data suggests drug toxicity kills about seven people per day on average.
Over the last couple of years, supervised consumption sites opened throughout the province in a bid to help keep people alive, but were recently legislated out of existence by the Ford government.
In Sudbury, encampments have sprouted behind the building that used to house the supervised consumption service.
Rob Black, a drug user, told CBC it's too bad nurses are no longer around to intervene in accidental overdoses.
"It didn't help at 100 per cent," he said. "But any per cent honestly helps at this point."
While ideas around supervised consumption and involuntary treatment have made headlines over the past few months, the province's main political parties haven't spent much time talking on the campaign trail about how to best tackle the opioid crisis.
For example, when the major party leaders squared off in the recent northern issues debate in North Bay, addictions, encampments and toxic drugs took up only 10 minutes of the 90-minute conversation, which focused more on tariffs, the economy, housing and health care.
Parties pitch different approaches to drug crisis
If re-elected, the Progressive Conservatives say, they will continue their policy of banning supervised consumption sites. They propose more enforcement tools and penalties to prohibit drug use in public spaces.
On the treatment front, the current Conservative government says it would continue its $530-million plan to open up 27 Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hubs — facilities that would provide mental health, addiction treatment, supportive housing and employment programs.
Greater Sudbury's hub, for one, is set to have 40 spots, with patients allowed to stay for up to 18 months at a time.
About 500 people are experiencing homelessness in the city, according to its latest unofficial count. Many of these individuals are also struggling with substance use.
The Ontario Liberals want to expand treatment and recovery services, but don't say how much would be invested and what the rollout would look like. They say quickly building supportive housing units is an important part of the solution.
During the northern debate, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie spent some time talking about her father's struggles with addictions and the toll it took on her family.
"This is a provincial issue and it's currently being downloaded to municipalities," said Crombie.
As for the Ontario New Democratic Party, it says it will follow the "advice of experts" and "use evidence-based strategies" to address the opioid crisis. That would include funding additional residential treatment beds.
"My priority is taking care of people," said NDP Leader Marit Stiles during the debate.
"Some of the people on the stage are going to want to throw people in jail, but I want to help people with their addictions."
The Green Party, led by Mike Schreiner, wants to address substance use through a health and human right framework, not a criminal justice one.
The Greens propose to build 60,000 supportive housing spaces with wraparound services and reopen supervised consumption sites, "prioritizing areas with high opioid deaths like the North."
Supervised consumption part of recovery: advocate
During the leaders' debate on northern issues, the Conservatives' Doug Ford said supervised consumption and safe supply initiatives worsen substance use disorders.
"It's like giving a gambler $1,000 to go to the casino or giving an alcoholic an LCBO card to get all the booze he wants," he said.
Karla Ghartey, a community health nurse and assistant professor at Nipissing University, helped pioneer many of Sudbury's supervised consumption initiatives.
She's still mourning the end of The Spot, a facility that ran out of money and closed while waiting to hear back on its provincial funding application.
"We felt like this was a step in the right direction," she said. "We were hopeful that it would be the start of something that we could continue to build on.
"We didn't think it would be both a start and the end."
Ghartey said the opioid issue will be top of mind when she heads to the polls Thursday. She said supervised consumption is only one piece of the puzzle, but it's still needed for a complete picture.
"There is not one thing that is going to make this thing go away … but this is part of recovery for some people."