West Nipissing Mayor Kathleen Thorne Rochon is part of a mayor’s panel at a national, three-day summit on substance use and the ongoing addiction crisis in smaller and medium sized cities. The summit, which is taking place in Timmins, is convened by the Canadian Centre On Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA). It aims to address the pressing challenges related to substance use in communities across Canada. The first-of-its-kind summit includes municipal leaders, public health officials, drug policy experts and service providers coming together to discuss the ongoing addiction crisis. “In some ways I can represent the challenges of municipalities across northern Ontario that have smaller population and bases that have larger geographic areas,” Thorne Rochon said. She is being joined by the mayors of Charlottetown, Iqaluit, Lethbridge, Timmins and Cambridge to discuss the impact of the substance abuse crisis in small- and mid-size cities across the country. The summit is part of a larger initiative launched by the CCSA. The panel’s goal is to develop actions and strategies at the local level to combat substance use and its impacts on communities. "We do see overdoses. But it's also emergency room visits and the impact that that has on our wait times," Thorne Rochon said. "It has an impact on the services that we can provide with people who are under the influence of toxic substances -- they sometimes pose more of a risk." She said the hospital is currently looking additional security measures, which will take more money out of the hospital budget. The summit is just the start of work with communities to begin developing the first municipally led, integrated standards for treatment, harm reduction, recovery, prevention and enforcement services, policies and strategies. "There are some interesting things being done in other communities and other provinces," Thorne Rochon said. In 2023, Cochrane District EMS being the first paramedic service that was allowed to carry and administer Suboxone, a classified narcotic, to reverse the effects of an overdose. Studies have found Suboxone can quell opioid withdrawal urges by delivering enough to satiate the craving without causing euphoria, along with offering about 24 hours of protection from another overdose. “Maybe they don't work out of the box with us, but it's something to think about,” she said. According to Statistics Canada, between January 2016 and September 2023, 42,000 people living in Canada died due to opioid overdoses. In 2023, most of the accidental opioid-related deaths occurred in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. “Every step we take makes progress. I don't think any of these are quick problems to solve,” Thorne Rochon said. “But I do believe that solutions come from building relationships.” The standards are set to give municipalities evidence-based options they can enact locally, which will help them unlock government support, as well as shrink the growing polarization around the drug crisis.
