Northern Ontario continues the dubious distinction of having the highest opioid death rates by far of anywhere else in the province.
The Office of the Chief Coroner has released its opioid toxicity deaths data for 2024 and three Northern Ontario cities top the list of areas with the highest death rates.
Thunder Bay has the highest rate in the province, with 80 deaths and a mortality rate of 69.14 people per 100,000 population. Sault Ste. Marie is second, with 38 deaths and a mortality rate of 48.36 people per 100,000 population.
Timmins is third, with 18 opioid toxicity deaths in 2024, with a rate of 40.74 per 100,000 population. In 2024, there were 26 opioid-related deaths reported in the city.
Greater Sudbury also made the top 10, ranking seventh in Ontario. It had 59 deaths and a rate of 32.81.
For statistics on the entire health unit coverage areas, the top six most impacted areas in the province are in the North.
Thunder Bay District Health Unit is the highest, with a mortality rate of more than 50 per 100,000 population. This rate is slightly higher than the year prior.
The Porcupine Health Unit is second with a rate of over 40, which is down from 2024. The Timiskaming Health Unit is sixth, with a mortality rate in the mid 20s per 100,000 population.
Because this data is from 2024, the Porcupine and Timiskaming health units have separate data. The merger to create Northeastern Public Health went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Algoma Public Health, Sudbury and District Health and the Northwestern Health fill the third, fourth and fifth spots, respectively, with rates ranging from 30 to nearly 40.
Safe Health Site Timmins stopped offering supervised consumption services on July 1, 2024, with the facility shuttering a month later. The Spot, Sudbury’s only sanctioned supervised consumption site, closed in March of last year.
Path 525 in Thunder Bay is set to close its supervised consumption space next month by order of the Ontario PC government. It's transitioned into a Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hub.
Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie were approved for new HART hubs. The Timmins application was denied.