Thunder Bay leads Ontario in opioid deaths per capita. Here's how 2 organizations handle the crisis

Outside the entrance to the community warming shelter on the north-side downtown core in Thunder Bay, Ont., paramedics respond to a suspected overdose.

Staff at Elevate NWO, a community-based harm reduction organization in northwestern Ontario, had called 911 after an individual was non-responsive in its lobby.

At the same time, staff were called a block up the street because there was another person who was non-responsive.

A day earlier, someone overdosed in the organization's parking lot, Elevate NWO executive director Holly Gauvin said. Two weeks earlier, someone had overdosed in the bathroom.

"That's not uncommon for us over the last two years. We've been in this location for about six years now, and we've never seen numbers like we're seeing now."

In 2021, it's suspected 118 people died from an opioid-related overdose in the Thunder Bay district alone, according to the most recent numbers from Ontario's chief coroner.

That's one person dying nearly every three days last year. 

When talking about the opioid crisis, B.C. is often mentioned, as six years ago, the province declared a public health emergency because of drug-related deaths. Since then, the situation seems to have worsened.

On a per-capita basis, however, more people died in Thunder Bay than in Vancouver, as well as every other public health unit in Ontario. 

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit's catchment area had 76.3 deaths per 100,000 population in 2021, while the Vancouver health service delivery had 72.6 deaths per 100,000 population, according to public data released by the coroner's offices in Ontario and British Columbia.

The situation in the Thunder Bay district has left front-line organizations scrambling to save lives while navigating a social services landscape vastly altered by building closures and other pandemic-related restrictions.

Elevate NWO is a prime example. Traditionally a harm reduction organization focused on providing HIV and hepatitis C treatment, care and support, it expanded its mandate considerably to create safe spaces for all community members during the pandemic.

Elevate NWO opened and expanded a warming centre — one of two in Thunder Bay this past winter — so people could learn more about harm reduction and access resources like clean needles to reduce the transmission of diseases.

"Last month alone, we saw 1,600 people through our doors. That's with the same staffing levels that we had seven years ago, when we might have seen 30 people through our doors on a busy day," Gauvin said, adding an important addition to their team was a First Nations elder who provides culturally safe supports and teachings.