TIMMINS - A three-day summit next week will have leaders from across the country sharing their stories and ideas to address substance-related crises.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) is partnering with the City of Timmins for the Timmins Summit.
From Sept. 5-7, about 80 people from across the country will be in town for the first-of-its-kind event at the Best Western Premier Northwood Hotel. The participants include elected leaders from municipalities with populations ranging from roughly 50,000 to 150,000 people, drug policy experts, service providers and industry experts.
"Together they will begin developing the first municipally led, integrated standards for treatment, harm reduction, recovery, prevention and enforcement services, policies and strategies," reads a CCSA news release.
The discussion topics include what's known about the toxic drug crisis, how it's impacting industry, whole health approaches to substance abuse, youth perspectives, and more.
Timmins was chosen as the first host community because the CCSA said it's developed a productive partnership with Mayor Michelle Boileau.
"Further, Timmins is like a lot of other small- to mid-sized cities across the country, while we recognize that each community has its own unique challenges and can benefit from regionally sensitive approaches," said Isabelle Robillard of the CCSA.
From January 2016 to September 2023, more than 42,000 people living in Canada died due to an apparent opioid overdose, according to the CCSA.
In the Porcupine Health Unit area, the number of opioid toxicity deaths spiked in the first year of the pandemic.
In 2020, 2021, and 2023, 40 people in the region died each of those years. In 2022 there were 30 deaths and in the first quarter of this year there were 15 deaths.
The Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC) for Ontario data for 2022-24 are preliminary and include confirmed and probable cases.
"Open substance use in public spaces, rising numbers of substance use-related hospitalizations and deaths, and a lack of affordable and stable housing are only a few of the challenges small- to mid-sized municipalities face as they attempt to better serve the needs of their communities," reads the CCSA news release.
"The Timmins Summit is just the beginning of a multiphase initiative to work with communities to develop the standards. The standards will provide municipal leaders with a consolidated range of evidence-based options to enact locally. They will help them unlock vital government support, as well as reduce the growing polarization concerning this crisis."
