TIMMINS - Advocates raised their voices during a day of action to increase harm reduction across the province.
A dozen protesters gathered on Algonquin Boulevard East to honour people who have died due to drug overdose and to call for social policy that will prevent future deaths.
Organizer Michelle Couture keeps a list of people she’s lost on her phone.
“We’ve lost a lot of good folks. Smart, intelligent, beautiful, loving, talented individuals in this community,” she said. “I have a running list on my phone, and it’s in the 20s right now, and that’s just since 2019.”
Couture works with people dealing with addictions and housing issues through her work at Jan’s Closet.
The protest comes as the city seeks input on the HOPE initiative to expand the number of temporary shelter spaces. Couture said the locations listed on the survey are not conducive to people accessing the services they need.
“I saw the survey, I saw the locations, and they’re not ideal,” she said. “You need to put this where it’s accessible for services and programs in town that these people are accessing.”
SEE: Here are the 4 proposed locations for Timmins' HOPE initiative
She pointed to barriers already existing in accessing things like housing in town.
“You have to be sober, or the operating hours are not congruent with what’s needed,” she said.
Couture said that if anyone is looking to complete the survey but does not have internet access or the tech needed to do so, they can stop by Jan’s Closet for help.
DIY Community Health founder Jason Sereda said that the provincial government has been ignoring the reports on safe injection sites and that these programs need to be funded.
“They have all the data,” said Sereda. “This saves lives, costs, and improves communities.”
Events were also held in Hamilton, Toronto, Barrie, Guelph, and Ottawa.
In the first three quarters of 2024, Timmins had the second-highest opioid death rate in Ontario, according to data from the Office of the Chief Coroner.
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.
RELATED: Timmins opioid death rate second highest in Ontario
In 2024, the Safe Health Site Timmins closed. Supervised consumption sites were replaced by Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs, though Timmins application for one of the new facilities was rejected.
Couture said the closing of the supervised consumption site in Timmins has impacted the community.
“Everybody knows somebody who died of an OD or knows somebody who knows somebody who has lost somebody,” she said.
She wants to see acknowledgement of the harm the current legislation from the Ford government has caused and the problems with how it was pushed through.
The bill in question was tabled in November and closed safe injection sites near schools and daycares. It also limited any new sites from opening.
“We want them to fight to get these sites open again, to have harm reduction accessible as much as possible to folks,” she said. “Remember, these are human beings that are dying.”