TIMMINS - In the first three quarters of 2024, Timmins had the second-highest opioid death rate in Ontario.
On Tuesday, the Office of the Chief Coroner released data its opioid toxicity deaths data for the first three quarters of last year.
Four Northern Ontario cities are in the top 10 areas with the highest opioid death rates.
Thunder Bay topped the list, with 68 deaths and a mortality rate of 78.16 per 100,000 people.
From January to September 2024, the rate in Timmins was 51.17 per 100,000 population. There were 17 deaths in the city during that period.
For statistics on the entire health unit coverage areas, six Northern Ontario health units top the list for the highest mortality rate in the third quarter of 2024, which includes July, August and September.
Thunder Bay District Health Unit had the highest rate with about 18 per 100,000 people, up from around 13 the previous quarter.
The Timiskaming Health Unit had the second-highest rate around 9 per 100,000 population. It was followed by the Northwestern Health Unit, the Porcupine Health Unit, Sudbury and District Health, and Algoma Public Health. The rates in those areas range from about seven to just over eight in the third quarter.
Because this data is from 2024, the Porcupine and Timiskaming health units have separate data. Their merger to create Northeastern Public Health went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
In the Porcupine Health Unit region, Timmins has the highest number of opioid-related deaths.
Safe Health Site Timmins stopped offering supervised consumption services on July 1, 2024, with the facility shuttering a month later. The Spot, Sudbury’s only sanctioned supervised consumption site, closed in March of last year.
Path 525 in Thunder Bay is set to close its supervised consumption space next month by order of the Ontario PC government. It's transitioning into a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub.
Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie are also getting HART hubs. The Timmins application was denied.