Northern Ontario's 5 largest cities continue to have highest opioid death rates in province

Dallas Kosy says he isn't surprised to hear that northern Ontario continues to have the highest rate of opioid overdose deaths in the province.

Last week, the Office of the Chief Coroner released preliminary figures showing five cities in the region —Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Greater Sudbury, Timmins and North Bay — had the highest opioid mortality rates per 100,000 population last year.

Kosy recently lost his brother-in-law to an overdose and has seen first hand the toll the opioid crisis has had in Sudbury.

"All those crosses that signify how large the issue is, I'm sure that's not even half of the crosses that could be put up," he said.

"There's definitely more than what's shown. I'm sure of it."

Kosy is referring to the Crosses for Change site that Denise Sandul started in 2020 in Sudbury's downtown. A white cross was planted at the corner of Paris and Brady streets for every opioid-related death that year.

Sandul lost her 22-year-old son, Myles Keaney, to an overdose two years ago. By 2022, there were more than 244 crosses at the site.

According to preliminary figures released May 4 from Ontario's coroner, the provincial average for opioid-related deaths per 100,000 population was 17.6. That's much lower than the average of 60.1 in northern Ontario's five largest cities.

Kosy said he's seen how difficult it is for people dealing with addiction to recover.

"You know, after you do them for so long, the withdrawal symptoms could become very serious," he said.

"And I don't think many people want to go through that two weeks or whatever it is of getting sober and physical pain like that."

He said more supportive housing would go a long way to help people in the community recover.

Kayla Pelland, director of peer engagement with Réseau Access Network, said it's been heart wrenching to see the number of lives lost to opioids in northern Ontario.

Réseau Access Network runs Sudbury's supervised consumption site, where clients can use drugs like opioids with clean equipment and under the watchful eyes of health-care professionals.