A public health researcher who focuses on Canada’s addictions crisis cites several factors for why opioid-related death rates are declining yet 911 calls have risen in Thunder Bay and several other Ontario cities, some of the findings in a new CBC data analysis.
The northwestern Ontario city continues to have the highest opioid-related death rate in the province, at more than five times the average, according to the Office of the Chief Coroner.
Gillian Kolla, an assistant professor in the faculty of medicine at Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador, researches overdose interventions, harm reduction, and the effects of drug policy on health and social services.
Kolla said sedatives increasingly found in street supplies are causing deep levels of unconsciousness, making it difficult to wake people up. However, they don’t necessarily cause the same level of respiratory depression — or breathing problems — as fentanyl does, the researcher explained.
“This is why we can have fewer deaths happening — because the fentanyl potency does seem to have decreased in Ontario over the last year and a half — while we still actually have more calls to EMS (emergency medical services).”
Province sees big drop in opioid-related death rates as northern Ontario maintains highest numbers
The data analysis indicates that while provincial and national opioid-related death rates have dropped, paramedics have received more calls about overdoses related to the drug in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton and Thunder Bay.
In Thunder Bay alone, calls for suspected opioid poisonings increased by 20 per cent in the first five months of 2026 compared to the same period last year, it found.
There have been 11 drug alerts issued in Thunder Bay since the spring about highly toxic substances.
The latest alert, issued by NorWest Community Health Centres on Wednesday, warned that more than 80 per cent of recent fentanyl samples contained either a veterinary tranquillizer called medetomidine and/or benzodiazepine, which slows down activity in the brain and nervous system.
Shane Muir, chief of Superior North EMS in Thunder Bay, said the city’s paramedics respond to overdose calls every day.
While more people are administering naloxone — used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose — it isn’t always effective against other substances, he said.
Considering the wide range of toxins in the street supply, “I don’t know if we have a true depiction of what’s really happening on the streets,” Muir said.
It’s important to recognize the effects of the drug crisis on first responders, said Muir.
“They are still reversing opioid overdoses, they’re providing naloxone on scenes, they’re providing ventilations. They’re saving lives.”
He wants to see more active street patrols to support those in need, as well as more accessible, low-barrier options for addiction recovery.
The Thunder Bay Police Service, for example, has extended a pilot program aimed at connecting people to social services rather than laying criminal charges against them.
Project Support was launched because of concerns about public drug use and disorderly conduct in the downtown cores.
“You have to hit them at the right time in their lives and when they need that support, otherwise it’s ineffective,” Muir said.
The recent closure of public supervised consumption sites across Ontario has further strained the health-care system, said Kolla.
Thunder Bay’s only supervised consumption site was one of 10 forced to close at the end of March 2025 due to new provincial rules about how close these sites could be to schools and child-care settings. In March 2026, the government announced it would end funding for the remaining provincially funded sites. Privately run sites continue to operate in Toronto.
The province has instead invested in Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs, which don’t allow supervised drug consumption, safer supply or needle exchange programs. According to the province, HART Hubs focus on providing primary care, employment support, and mental health, addiction and social services.
However, Kolla said, decades of research point to the effectiveness of supervised consumption sites in saving lives and connecting people to essential resources.
Veterinary tranquillizer in more than 70% of recent Thunder Bay, Ont., drug samples
Overdose calls to paramedics on the rise in several Ontario cities, CBC analysis shows
“Because people are being forced to use [drugs] in public and hidden spaces and you’re taking away part of the health-care infrastructure that had been keeping them safe, then it makes sense that you’re going to be seeing these EMS call increases,” Kolla said.
Increasingly unpredictable drugs, coupled with the closure of sites that let people use substances in the presence of health-care professionals, make for a “perfect storm in terms of calls to EMS and hospitalizations,” Kolla said.
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In her view, treatment and harm reduction should go hand in hand.
“A lot of people who are interested in moving towards treatment go to harm reduction programs in order to get referrals for treatment services,” she said.
“We need both so that we can meet the greatest variety of needs for people in the midst of what is a continuing and unrelenting public health crisis.”
