Sioux Lookout, Ont., to get its own addictions treatment facility, with a focus on First Nations culture

After years of pleading for help, people suffering from addictions in northwestern Ontario will finally be able to get treatment close to home, the province announced this week.

The province's associate minister of mental health and addictions, Michael Tibollo, was in Sioux Lookout Tuesday to announce more than $4 million to create 37 new addictions treatment beds in the town of over 5,000 people that's about 350 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

"Sioux Lookout, although it's a small town, supports 33 [First Nations] — many of them are remote and fly-in — and so this new addiction centre is something that's desperately needed in the area," said Jake Dockstator, executive director of the Sioux Lookout Friendship Accord Economic Development Corporation, which is receiving the funding.

The development corporation was created in 2020 to enhance economic growth for the municipality and four surrounding First Nations.

In making the announcement, the province said studies have shown opioid-related deaths surged by 79 per cent during the first two waves of the pandemic, with rates being three times higher in northern Ontario.

Under the province's new Addictions Recovery Fund, almost 400 new addictions treatment beds will be created across Ontario, including for care for people in northern, rural and Indigenous communities.

In Sioux Lookout, the location for the new addictions treatment facility has yet to be determined, Dockstator told CBC News, as they are assessing different options to retrofit existing buildings.

But he said it will be operational within 12 months, with the goal of the first people coming through the doors as early as the fall.

Dockstator said the funding, which will run out at the end of March 2024, will create:

"This is the first dedicated facility for all of this [in the community]," added Dockstator.

Currently, people needing acute care while withdrawing from substances are admitted to a general care bed at the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre. Anyone needing intensive or residential treatment would have to travel to Thunder Bay, Toronto or further to access care.

"This is a huge deal for the First Nations of the area just in terms of accessibility, being able to get to these facilities and have space, and also to have a support network closer where your family can actually travel and visit you while receiving treatment," Dockstator said.

As they create the space for the new addictions treatment centre, a priority will be developing land-based and culturally safe programming, he said.

"We heard from a number of people who struggle with addictions over the last two days, and something they mentioned was building that connection to their culture was really what helped them break that cycle."