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Sault Ste. Marie has the highest opioid poisoning death rate in Ontario and Mayor Matthew Shoemaker is calling on the community to send letters to the government, urging it to fund a HART center.

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The most recent quarterly statistics from the Office of the Chief Coroner, released this week, place Sault Ste. Marie with the highest opioid poisoning death rate in Ontario for the second time in a row.

“It’s frustrating and disappointing and it makes you angry,” Shoemaker said. “If nothing changes, we know the statistics will continue to look like this,” he said.

Shoemaker wrote another letter to Health Minister Sylvia Jones – on the 13thth from the Mayor’s Office in recent years – showing that “statistics highlight the urgent need for increased support” from government with a HART hub.

Sault Ste. Marie’s rate of 64.2 deaths per 100,000 population (annualized) in the first and second quarters of this year translates to 24 deaths, the data shows. Blind River and Garden River also had one death each during the first and second quarters.

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More recently, between April and June, Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma experienced approximately 10 deaths per 100,000 residents.

The Ontario average for the same period is four deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

The data is entered by the public health unit, which includes all of Algoma.

The second largest region, Thunder Bay, posted rates of 59.6 deaths per 100,000 population (annualized) for the same period, or 33 deaths in the first and second quarters.

Northern Ontario’s five major urban centers – Sault, Thunder Bay, Timmins, North Bay and Sudbury – were on the list of top 10 opioid poisoning death rates by census subdivision.

Fentanyl is a major contributor to these deaths.

Shoemaker said this clearly indicates that communities in Northern Ontario do not have equal access to the services and resources that their counterparts in Southern Ontario have.

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“The further you live from Queen’s Park, the less access you have to services and the worse off your population health data is,” he said.

Since Thunder Bay was forced to close its safe consumption site, it will get a HART hub, but Shoemaker says all urban cities in the North need a hub, “but if the province forces us to be competitive, the statistics show that Sault Ste. Mary needs it more than anyone.

Provincial data also shows that since the start of the pandemic, three out of four deaths have been men and that the 30 to 59 age groups continue to be most affected, accounting for 73 per cent of deaths in the second quarter.

Across the province, nearly half of all deaths from opioid poisoning occurred among people living in areas experiencing the highest level of marginalization of material resources, such as housing, food, clothing and education.

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The statistics include confirmed and probable opioid-related deaths.

At the last council meeting, Ward 5 Count. Corey Gardi implored the community to take the time to email Jones, Sault MLA Ross Romano, and others to impress upon the community the importance of funding the HART Hub in order to help address ongoing substance abuse and mental health issues.

“We deserve this funding as much as anyone,” he said. “If you talk about it, write those words down digitally and send them.”

Shoemaker said it made sense to launch the letter-writing campaign now, with the release of the new statistics. He encourages the community to send an email or letter to Jones detailing their experiences and reiterating the critical need for a HART hub in the community.

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In fact, his website, matthewshoemaker.ca/harthub/, has a template letter file, along with the minister’s email address, that community members can copy, paste and send.

“I hope the decisions made (at Queen’s Park) are based on need, but if there is another aspect that shows the community wants it, I want to make sure we are at the top of the list” , he said. .

Shoemaker said he has also contacted MPP Ross Romano to see if there is another way the community can push for the HART Hub to get the minister’s attention and he hopes the provincial representative will push for obtain financing.

“I hope it’s in his hands and he advocates for this community on his own and exploits the channels he has,” he said.

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Shoemaker said he hopes to do group lobbying at the NOLUM meeting scheduled for later this week, advocating for all the needs of northern communities.

“We’re doing everything we can,” Shoemaker said. “The statistics say we need it and subjectively we are running a letter writing campaign, which is starting to show that we have the highest death toll in the province and we have a member of government. I think we’ve put ourselves in a position where we should be approved.

Attempts to meet with Jones again are also on the radar, he said.

Sault Ste. Marie was beginning work on an application for a safe consumption site when the province announced it would not approve any new sites and would force some to close.

Instead, he announced he would create 19 HART centers, nine of which would be for communities to transition their safe consumption sites to the new format.

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Sault Ste. Mare has submitted its application for one of the remaining HART hubs.

The province pledges that the new HART hubs will “reflect regional priorities by connecting people with complex needs to comprehensive treatment and prevention services.” They will not offer safe or supervised drug use or needle exchange programs.

Funding from the $378 million for the new models will also be used to develop additional hubs across Ontario. Each hub will have a budget of $6.3 million, including $1.3 million specifically reserved for housing support.

One-time start-up and implementation costs of $1.8 million will be provided to successful applicants in 2024-25, and it is anticipated that the programs will be operational by winter 2025.

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