New report calls for systemic change to addressing homelessness, mental health in northern Ontario

The Ontario government should commit to funding services in "northern service hubs" to reflect the needs of the regional populations they serve, according to a new report on homelessness, mental health and addictions.

The call to recognize northern service hubs in law appears in a 20-page report the Northern Policy Institute (NPI) released Wednesday entitled "More than Just a Number." 

It's designed to serve as a lobbying document for municipal leaders to leverage systemic support from senior levels of government that would address what NPI researchers call a "crisis" in the north.

"It's a huge crisis in northern Ontario at the moment and a lot of these things are inter-related," said Holly Parsons, the report's author. "Wraparound supports are essential. When you think about all the connections between these things, I think we're continuing to highlight just how many strategies and different angles need to be taken."

'Unique challenges' in northern Ontario

The paper calls for Ontario to amend the Health Protection and Promotion Act, defining a "Northern Service Hub" and then to "mandate the provincial government to provide additional support to these communities through reserve funds or the like."

Parsons wants to see a balance between available resources and need.

Her research found the province has designed a system wherein housing, health, and social services in many northern municipalities serve an unacknowledged population migrating from far beyond their borders. She found those migrants — of which a "significant proportion" are Indigenous — are coming to find underfunded services, service gaps, and ultimately, strained municipally-funded services of last resort.

"Service hubs in northern Ontario face unique challenges in terms of their homeless populations: the in-migration of people from surrounding rural and remote communities to access employment, education, and social and health services that do not exist in their communities," the report reads.

"Removed from their familiar environments and support systems, migrants often find themselves without the financial means to support themselves or return to their communities and, thus, become dependent on emergency shelters and other social services."

The final paper is refined from a draft report CBC obtained in April, which painted a stark convergence of social issues across northern Ontario — one it found municipalities do not have the budget capacity to address alone.

It found five of the 11 northern districts have a higher per-capita homeless rate than Toronto, with two others close behind. Every district has a rising, opioid-related hospitalization rate. And every one of northern Ontario's 163 municipalities is officially considered "an area of high physician need."

Municipal leaders discussing changes

Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association president Wendy Landry said regional leaders are already holding discussions to begin defining northern service hubs and build on the report's evidence that shows the cost of extreme poverty.

"Housing, homelessness, mental health and addictions are all part of the rollover to our municipal costs when it comes to policing, emergency services and hospital services. If we're not dealing with the root of the social issues, it's going to continue to cost municipalities money," Landry said.

"Hopefully we have enough information and enough passion behind our advocacy – I know we have an ear – to have influence, so the government sees we're offering solutions to our health and how to address the issues that are just growing bigger."

The paper issues eight recommendations that NPI says have proven track records to make change and fit within the government's mandate.

Those include mandating mobile crisis intervention units to reduce pressure on police; funding capital repairs and new builds focused on the Housing First principle; Indigenous-focused housing and programming; provincial support to address the medical professional shortage; and founding either a physical or virtual Northern Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence.

NPI's report has been released a week ahead of the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario meetings, which are scheduled to begin on Aug. 14 in Ottawa.