Municipalities from across the country have taken their request for federal help in battling the opioid crisis to Ottawa as part of the recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference.
The crisis has been felt in just about every city and town in the country and Hamilton is no exception.
Recently released data from the City of Hamilton’s Department of Public Health indicates emergency room visits in Hamilton for opioid overdoses have nearly doubled compared to last year.
According to the most recent numbers available, there were 24 opioid overdose deaths in Hamilton in the first half of 2016 alone.
Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger said there is a “significant shortage of drug rehabilitation beds.”
“It does no good to tell someone who is ready to try and get off drugs that they’ll have to go on a waiting list and that treatment is four, five, six months away,” he said. “Then that opportunity has come and gone.”
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In February, the mayors of 13 large Canadian cities, including Hamilton, launched a task force on the opioid crisis.
The Big-City Mayors’ Caucus released a list of recommendations late last month, ahead of the four-day Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference, which was held in Ottawa over the weekend.
Eisenberger said municipalities in Ontario and across the country have been pushing the upper levels of government to help fund “accurate real time data to provide an appropriate response given the resources at hand.”
He said the key is to make the funding consistent.
Eisenberger said, so far, the response has been that the federal government is “keen and looking at ways and means” to provide assistance, adding it has already done so in British Columbia where it’s feared opioid deaths could top 1,400 this year.
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