Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc wants the city to consider having career firefighters play a role in dealing with the opioid crisis.
Speaking at Wednesday's meeting of the emergency services committee, Leduc suggested firefighters could do patrols of their areas.
“I would like to see firefighters, from the downtown station, for example, they could be boots on the ground,” Leduc said. “(They) could start patrolling the parks where we're seeing these popup injection sites come up, where we could utilize our manpower there better.”
“I'd like to see a report on something like that come forward, if possible.”
The popup injection sites have appeared in the downtown/Flour Mill areas over the last two weeks, run by a volunteer group called the STOP (Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention) Society. The group says they are needed because of the severity of the problem – someone dies from an overdose every five days in the city – and the province won't approve Sudbury for a safe injection site.
But many neighbours resent the sites, arguing they attract addicts into their neighbourhood, bringing the crisis within sight of children and other residents.
Leduc wanted to add the idea to a motion the committee approved asking for a report explaining why firefighters respond to motor vehicles crashes, even when there are no injuries and ambulance and police are called off.
But Joseph Nicholls, the city's head of emergency services, said giving firefighters the new responsibility would be a major service change and is something that would have to be approved by all of city council.
The responsibilities of emergency responders are spelled out in a bylaw that is being reviewed this fall, Nicholls said, and that would be a more appropriate time to consider such a major change.
“That's a service level enhancement that would take firefighters away from other work, and I would have a concern with that,” Nicholls said. “If this was something all of council wanted, you could certainly direct me to add that as a service level (to the bylaw) ... and then we would do that.”
But Leduc persisted, and the committee took a break so his plan could be included in a motion.
“I would call it an emergency (plan) to respond to the opioid crisis we're facing right now in our downtown core,” he said.
But after the break, Nicholls said he had a chance to speak with Leduc, who was willing to wait for the revised bylaw. The Community Drug Strategy – made up of police, the health unit, and city staff among others – are already working on a plan, he said.
“We certainly have an opioid crisis, and there are groups, as we speak, working and talking and looking at how we can best address these issues in the community,” he said. “As I told the councillor, these things are playing out as we speak. Lots of meetings, lots of staff looking at different issues.
“So I just ask for time to let these issues run their course, then ... we can come back to the committee with some action items on what's happening on a corporate level and the community level.”
