Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett has called on the province to reform how it funds addiction treatments after receiving results from a province-wide poll intended to gauge how Ontario residents feel about the current crisis.
According to the poll, paid for by the City of Cambridge, 78 per cent of respondents would like to see the province allocate special funding for mental health and addiction services and 67 per cent agree that "Ontario’s laws needed to change to allow families and physicians to provide mental health and addiction treatment to involuntary patients."
After receiving the results from the poll, Liggett believes that Ontarians agree with her view that there needs to be changes in how the province approaches mental health and addictions in local communities.
She has penned an open letter to mayors, municipalities, provincial and federal politicians calling for action and a shift from the status quo.
"I do not think it is an overstatement: the current mental health and addictions crisis is the greatest calamity of our time," wrote Liggett in the letter.
"This crisis has leached into the very fabric of our lives, it has turned our streets into the theatre of mental crises and places for open drug use, it has affected economic development on a micro and macro scale, and most importantly, the negative impact to the health and wellness of our community members of all ages will be felt for generations."
According to numbers provided by Waterloo Region Public Health, there have been 88 suspected drug deaths so far in 2024. In 2023, there was a total of 78 suspected drug deaths.
Liggett adds there have been debates and discourse on this topic for three decades with very little to show for it and "actions to this point have only exacerbated the crisis."
"I felt I knew what needed to be done but I wanted to hear from the people who live with this every day. As the leader of my community, I realized I needed to take it to the people and then listen carefully, so I decided to do a poll," reads the letter.
The poll was conducted by Campaign Research, a third-party polling company at the direction of Liggett and the City of Cambridge.
The poll received responses from 2,027 Ontarians from July 30-31 at a cost of $20,000 from the city's pocket.
Liggett believes the $20,000 was well spent and adds this poll captures what every government needs to know when allocating funds.
With the numbers coming back, an overwhelming majority agreed that "Ontario’s laws needed to change to facilitate the involuntary treatment of patients."
This would force individuals who battle addictions into rehabilitation against their will or when they are not ready to accept help; something experts have been advising against for years.
Local drug policy expert Michael Parkinson thinks the poll is flawed from the beginning as it lumps addiction and mental health services into the same category.
"The poll is not specific enough to ascertain population-level support for involuntary treatment for substance use disorders specifically," said Parkinson.
"There is no evidence that involuntary treatment is better than voluntary, evidence-based treatment, quite the opposite. This would be a violation of human rights and why the province doesn't offer this as a solution anymore."
Parkinson references a study done by McMaster University in 2023 that states some of the studies on involuntary treatment noted concerns of violence and the violation of human rights.
"Worse health-related outcomes in involuntary treatment as compared to voluntary treatment, including increased risk of non-fatal overdose after follow-up and increased risk of dying after discharge," reads the report.
"Moral distress in providers of involuntary treatment as well as a perception of it being ineffective and inconvenient for establishing a therapeutical environment with the participant."
Liggett noted in an email to CambridgeToday, the poll will be shown to other municipalities, mayors and upper levels of government at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) next week in Ottawa.
According to a report put out by AMO in July 2024, they note that research shows voluntary treatment consistently outperforms involuntary treatment, which has limited benefits, high costs and legal and ethical issues.
"Involuntary treatment can be a traumatic experience that does not improve the individual’s health and has been shown to substantially increase the risk of overdose after release by decreasing a person’s tolerance without effectively treating their substance use disorder," said the AMO.
Parkinson agrees the implementation of involuntary treatment would cause a tremendous financial burden not only on the province, but the municipalities as well.
"Right now there is an estimated 35,000 people who are addicted to non-regulated substances in Waterloo region alone," said Parkinson. "Where are any of these people to be sent to; an imaginary American-owned facility? Or maybe displace some of the limited, voluntary residential spaces? A new, massive complex in Cambridge?"
In Liggett's letter, she notes that "actions taken to this point have only exacerbated the crisis."
A statement that Parkinson takes some exception to as he has been calling for drug policy reform for the past decade, first notifying the region of the impending crisis in 2011.
"Certainly the actions to date have been so limited and lacking the political will to address core issues," he said. "The mayor isn't the only elected official rejecting solutions grounded in science for years."
Liggett would like to see the province create a dedicated fund to be directed at solving the current mental health and addiction crisis, which four out of five respondents supported.
"It would include increasing investment for in-patient and out-patient detox, rehabilitation and recovery bed services, as well as additional funding for staff to deliver these services," said Liggett.
"It is imperative that they also look at broadening the availability of Drug Treatment Court and look at adopting similar policies as British Columbia by making amendments to the Health Care Consent Act, 1996."
This poll and call from the Cambridge mayor come on the heels of a press conference from Ontario Premier Doug Ford that drew criticism for his take on dealing with those who access safe consumption sites noting he's "not sold" on the idea.
The news conference, first reported on by The Trillium, adds Ford's government is looking at making changes to safe consumption sites, but approving more is not likely.
"I'm a big believer in detox beds to support people to get help. I'll be very frank, I'm not sold on these safe injection sites," Ford said at a press conference in Thunder Bay last week. He said neighbourhoods where these sites are located have needles "all thrown around" in them and are a "haven for drug dealers." He also cited a shooting that killed a woman outside one site last year.
"I want to help them. They say that the safe injection sites help and everything; well, the numbers don't show that," he said. "It's like putting an alcoholic outside the LCBO and telling them not to drink, but you'll get a bottle every single day — doesn't make sense."
Parkinson thinks the only way out of this crisis demands population-level actions and the funding of safe consumption sites, drug testing, outreach and upstream services.
"If the mayor's opinion is to take Ontario back to another century, it will be extremely expensive for taxpayers and not provide the relief constituents seek," said Parkinson.
"This issue has become so politicized that decision-makers are not looking at scientific fact and are acting on opinions and I'm sorry, but facts don't care about opinions."
