Peer support agency in Thunder Bay, Ont., readies for relocation, new supportive housing
CBC
A peer support agency in Thunder Bay, Ont., is relocating its drop-in centre, as it expands its services to include supportive housing on the south side of town.
People Advocating for Change Through Empowerment (PACE), located at 510 Victoria Avenue E., is a central location for some of the city's most vulnerable. There, they can get food and free clothing, do their laundry, take a shower and connect with others in a safe environment.
The organization has recently become involved in the province's new Homeless and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hub (HART) program, following the closure of the region's only supervised consumption site, Path 525, at the end of March.
"We love this space. However, to make it work better with the new initiatives coming up by the government and for the initiatives going on in this business area, like the [Victoriaville] mall coming down, our people need a place to go," said Georgina McKinnon, PACE's executive director.
In the coming weeks, PACE will relocate to 409 George St., directly across from Shelter House, remaining in the neighbourhood it's been serving for years.
With the new space comes room for a dozen new supportive housing units, which McKinnon hopes become part of a continuum of care for people recovering from addiction, she said.
"We're hoping to be one of the last steps, that people come out of recovery, go into more heavily-supported housing, down to lightly-supported housing," McKinnon explained. "We can help them out downstairs in PACE before they get out into the world on their own."
The Thunder Bay district continues to have the highest opioid-related death rate in Ontario, at nearly five times the provincial average.
NorWest Community Health Centres, which operated Path 525, is the lead partner for Thunder Bay's HART Hub.
Unlike supervised consumption sites, HART Hubs do not allow supervised drug consumption, safer supply or needle exchange programs. According to the province, they instead focus on providing primary care, employment support, and mental health, addiction and social services — much of which PACE already offers.
"I'm so excited," McKinnon said of the upcoming move. "PACE is expanding in so many ways, it's amazing."
Everyone who works at PACE has lived experience of the challenges their clients are going through, such as homelessness, addictions and mental health issues.
David Baumgartner is a long-time client at PACE who started coming there when he was staying at an overnight shelter.
"It kind of became like my second home. I'm here often, pretty much every day, for everything from just talking to people to eating to getting clothes, whatever," he said. "They help me with all of it."
A Calgary dentist who defrauded five insurance companies over a decade should spend up to three years in prison, the prosecution argued Friday.
B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it has called off its search for a bear responsible for an attack on a group of school children in Bella Coola, B.C. on Nov. 20.
The union president called it a rally for solidarity as Iqaluit Housing Authority employees gathered Friday while negotiations are ongoing between the Nunavut Employees Union and the employer.
The federal government is stoking Quebec separatism by walking back its climate commitments — including in its recent deal with Alberta — Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault says.
Four more Alberta MLAs are facing recall petitions organized by their constituents, including the first NDP representative to be caught in the province's ongoing wave of recall efforts.
Frank Gehry, the Canadian-born renegade architect behind some of the world's most recognizable buildings, has died at 96.
Hundreds of P.E.I. parents can't find child-care spaces, especially for infants. The provincial government says expanding those spots remains a top priority — and it recognizes the concern.
An Alberta judge says a referendum proposal on Alberta separating from Canada goes against Charter and and Treaty rights, in a decision given less than 24 hours after the provincial government introduced legislation that would have ended the court proceeding.
The architect of Alberta's politician recall legislation says it was never meant to be used as a political weapon, but as an "ultimate tool of accountability" if a politician engages in illegal or unethical behaviour.
The Government of Saskatchewan has introduced its long-promised involuntary treatment legislation on the final day of the fall sitting.
The Law Society of Ontario has suspended the licence of Deepak Paradkar, one of seven Canadians arrested in connection with alleged drug lord Ryan Wedding’s cocaine smuggling ring.
London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is getting rid of unlimited mental health benefits for staff, blaming ballooning costs and former administrators for implementing it without proper due diligence or oversight.
Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's TV and film studios and streaming division for $72 billion US, a deal that would hand control of one of Hollywood's most prized and oldest assets to the streaming pioneer that has upended the media industry.