The day after this story was published, Mayor Ken Boshcoff issued a letter retracting his comments.
THUNDER BAY — An ominous tilting point in the balance between what is best for the Thunder Bay community, its businesses and the growing social issues looms closer and the city's leader has taken notice.
Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff said the Safe Supply City designation that the city undertook as a pilot program appears to have drawn people to Thunder Bay for free safe drugs, which is creating community problems and pressure on emergency service workers.
"Thunder Bay designated itself a safe supply city, where we provide the drugs, which means we are attracting hundreds of thousands of people in the summer and hundreds of people over the winter to get safe (drug) supply, and that means that we have to take care of them," he said.
The provision of this pilot is within the purview of the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board, which has been mandated by the province to handle the file.
Boshcoff added, "The city has created a whole department of extra people to deliver this and for us to try and walk back is going to be extremely difficult because of the optics that all of a sudden we're becoming mean and that we are going to make these people responsible for themselves."
The mayor said he is in a "total dilemma."
"I'm fed up. I'm a very generous and caring person but they've pushed me way past my limits," he said. "I think that we're actually making the problem worse."
Boshcoff agrees with Superior Screen Printing business owner Dave Christen that the people need social guidance, a chance to heal from whatever traumas they're battling, become rehabilitated from their addictions, and to blend back into the community.
"That is where I'm coming from, but I have been pushed way past my limits of tolerance," he said.
Boshcoff noted that there isn't any one particular demographic of people that are homeless or battle addictions.
"It's people coming from all over Canada because this is a great place to be and we provide the drugs," he said.
"The word is out — Thunder Bay is the party town where you get tents, which they throw on the rivers; sleeping bags, which they throw away and free drugs. And it's way beyond our capacity or anything that anybody ever envisioned. I think many people are at the end of their tolerance in that we have done so much and it's still making things worse."
He added that the numbers keep growing "way beyond our capacity" and that it's "way past the time" to do something about the situation.
"It's straining our protective resources, paramedics, firefighters and police and the city has to wear this, and I don't, I don't want to wear it anymore, I'm tired of it," he said. "I'm a frustrated mayor, trying to convince council that it's time that we turned this into a law-abiding community."
Boshcoff acknowledged that there are very few places that aren't experiencing this, but for Thunder Bay, "we have to draw the line."
"If we don't, it'll simply eat up every resource and every available penny, at the expense of reasonable protection that people expect from their police," he said.
Boshcoff's message for local businesses is that the police want to know about these things that are happening and business owners must report these events.
"Our police are trying to get a focus and a handle on this . . . if we don't call and if we don't stand together on this, we'll keep on getting chipped away. I'm asking for the whole community to give counsel the backup they need to say, 'Enough is enough.' We have to document it and we have to, have to act on that."
Boshcoff said he is working closely with city council to gain support and "take a stronger position" with the issues.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
