Canadians who live in small cities face substantially higher risks of opioid overdoses than those who live in larger centres, according to new national data that expose how poverty, unemployment and other factors are exacerbating the continuing crisis.
More than 2,000 people died as a result of opioids from January to June, a slight increase over the same period in 2017, and 17 people are hospitalized across the country every day as a result of opioid overdoses, according to data released on Wednesday by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). The vast majority of the deaths were accidental and more than 70 per cent were linked to fentanyl, a powerful opioid.
The rate of hospitalizations for opioid overdoses was two and a half times higher in smaller cities with populations of 50,000 to 99,999 than in large urban centres, according to the CIHI data. Prince George, Nanaimo and Kamloops in British Columbia, Medicine Hat in Alberta and Belleville and Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario are among the communities with the highest hospitalization rate for opioid poisonings, according to CIHI.
The top 10 communities in the 50,000 to
99,999 population size with the highest rates
of hospitalizations due to opioid poisoning by
community size, Canada, 2017
Hudson
Bay
B.C.
ALTA.
SASK.
0
650
MAN.
KM
Prince George
QUE.
ONT.
Red Deer
Kamloops
Medicine Hat
Belleville
Lethbridge
Nanaimo
Sault Ste. Marie
Chilliwack
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
U.S.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCES: HOSPITAL MORBIDITY
DATABASE, CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH
INFORMATION; TILEZEN; OPENSTREET CONTRIBUTORS; HIU.
NOTE: QUEBEC DATA AND POPULATION DATA ARE
FROM 2016 (THE MOST RECENT YEAR OF DATA AVAILABLE)
The top 10 communities in the 50,000 to 99,999
population size with the highest rates
of hospitalizations due to opioid poisoning by
community size, Canada, 2017
CANADA
Hudson
Bay
B.C.
ALTA.
SASK.
MAN.
0
650
KM
Prince George
ONT.
QUE.
Red Deer
Kamloops
Medicine Hat
Belleville
U.S.
Nanaimo
Lethbridge
Sault Ste. Marie
Chilliwack
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCES: HOSPITAL MORBIDITY DATABASE,
CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH INFORMATION; TILEZEN; OPENSTREET
CONTRIBUTORS; HIU. NOTE: QUEBEC DATA AND POPULATION DATA ARE
FROM 2016 (THE MOST RECENT YEAR OF DATA AVAILABLE)
The top 10 communities in the 50,000 to 99,999 population size with
the highest rates of hospitalizations due to opioid poisoning
by community size, Canada, 2017
Hudson
Bay
B.C.
ALTA.
SASK.
MAN.
0
650
Prince George
KM
CANADA
ONT.
QUE.
Red Deer
Kamloops
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
Sault Ste. Marie
Medicine Hat
Lethbridge
Nanaimo
Belleville
U.S.
Chilliwack
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCES: HOSPITAL MORBIDITY DATABASE, CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH
INFORMATION; TILEZEN; OPENSTREET CONTRIBUTORS; HIU. NOTE: QUEBEC DATA AND POPULATION DATA
ARE FROM 2016 (THE MOST RECENT YEAR OF DATA AVAILABLE)
“People are really suffering here,” Andrew Gray, medical health officer for the northern interior region of B.C.’s Northern Health, said from Prince George. “There are a lot of people who are grieving, who are burning out from the stress.”
While the opioid crisis affects every part of Canada, Dr. Gray and other experts say there are a few factors that make smaller communities more susceptible. Access to methadone or suboxone, which are opioids used to treat addiction, and other health-care resources may be better in larger cities. But small communities also tend to have lower employment rates, higher poverty and other factors known as the social determinants of health that are often linked to a higher risk of opioid use and related problems.
“The social determinants of health have a very strong impact on addiction,” Dr. Gray said. “People continue to use opioids … because they’re still in pain.”
Jeffrey Eppler, an emergency physician at Kelowna General Hospital, said he’s seen more overdoses in the past two years than in the previous 20.
“I’ve lost people I know,” he said. “It’s close to home. So many people have been touched by this.”
Claire Dineen, health promotion educator at the AIDS Vancouver Island Health Centre in Nanaimo, attributed the high overdose rates in part to the city’s geography; Nanaimo is a seaside community with a milder climate that can draw homeless and drug-using populations from elsewhere.
More than 150 homeless people who once inhabited a sprawling tent city by the waterfront just moved into newly opened modular housing, but Ms. Dineen said the city still needs to significantly increase treatment services.
Opioid poisoning hospitalization rates,
census metropolitan areas,
Canada, 2017
4.6–10.0
10.1–20.0
Age-adjusted rate per
100,000 population
20.1–30.0
30.1–40.0
40.1–53.0
Thunder Bay
Ottawa–Gatineau
(Quebec part)
Vancouver
Quebec
Edmonton
St. John’s
Saskatoon
Moncton
Winnipeg
Halifax
Toronto
Saint John
Greater
Sudbury
Victoria
Montreal
Regina
Ottawa–
Gatineau
(Ontario part)
Calgary
Brantford
Kelowna
London
Abbotsford–Mission
St. Catharines–
Niagara
Hamilton
Notes: Quebec data is from 2016 (the most
recent year of data available). To be considered
a CMA, the area must have a total population
of at least 100,000, of which 50,000 or more
live in the urban core.
CARRIE COCKBURN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL,
SOURCE: HOSPITAL MORBIDITY DATABASE, CANADIAN
INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH INFORMATION.
Opioid poisoning hospitalization rates,
census metropolitan areas, Canada, 2017
Age-adjusted rate per 100,000 population
4.6–10.0
10.1–20.0
40.1–53.0
20.1–30.0
30.1–40.0
Thunder Bay
Ottawa–Gatineau
(Quebec part)
St. John’s
Edmonton
Quebec
Saskatoon
Moncton
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Halifax
Toronto
Saint John
Montreal
Calgary
Greater
Sudbury
Victoria
Regina
Ottawa–Gatineau
(Ontario part)
Kelowna
Brantford
Abbotsford–
Mission
St. Catharines–
Niagara
London
Hamilton
Notes: Quebec data is from 2016 (the most recent year
of data available). To be considered a CMA, the area must
have a total population of at least 100,000, of which
50,000 or more live in the urban core.
CARRIE COCKBURN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL,
SOURCE: HOSPITAL MORBIDITY DATABASE, CANADIAN INSTITUTE
FOR HEALTH INFORMATION.
Opioid poisoning hospitalization rates, census metropolitan areas, Canada, 2017
Age-adjusted rate per 100,000 population
4.6–10.0
10.1–20.0
40.1–53.0
20.1–30.0
30.1–40.0
Ottawa–Gatineau
(Quebec part)
St. John’s
Edmonton
Quebec
Thunder Bay
Saskatoon
Vancouver
Moncton
Winnipeg
Halifax
Toronto
Saint John
Montreal
Calgary
Greater
Sudbury
Victoria
Ottawa–Gatineau
(Ontario part)
Regina
Kelowna
Brantford
St. Catharines–
Niagara
Abbotsford–Mission
London
Hamilton
Notes: Quebec data is from 2016 (the most recent year of data available). To be considered
a CMA, the area must have a total population of at least 100,000, of which 50,000 or more
live in the urban core.
CARRIE COCKBURN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: HOSPITAL MORBIDITY DATABASE, CANADIAN INSTITUTE
FOR HEALTH INFORMATION.
“They’re not in tents any more; that’s great, but we need to have a lot of other services,” she said.
Bob Hughes is the Kamloops-based executive director of the Ask Wellness Society, an organization that advocates for at-risk populations. He said he was not surprised to hear of the high hospitalization rate from a year or two ago, but noted there has been a “seismic change” in the availability of services and supports since.
“Some major inroads have been made around addressing homelessness in our community, and efforts by the health authority have been unprecedented, in my 20 years in the field,” he said, citing supervised consumption service, drug-checking technology and a housing-first initiative as examples.
Dr. Gray said part of the challenge is making people more aware of who is most at risk and how to reduce stigma and build strategies to help them. Many people think of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside when they think of drug overdoses, but when it comes to opioids, a large proportion of those dying are using drugs at home alone, where help can’t reach them in time.
“A lot of the people that are dying are dying behind closed doors,” he said. “A lot of these cases don’t make the news.”
Opioids have long been a public health issue in Canada but has exploded in the past few years as a result of fentanyl. Illicit fentanyl, often shipped to Canada from China, is increasingly being added to cocaine, MDMA and other street drugs, and users have no idea they are ingesting a powerful, deadly opioid, said Bonnie Henry, B.C.'s provincial health officer.
She said the new figures demonstrate much more needs to be done to address the crisis. Canada must consider decriminalizing opioids, expanding the number of safe consumption sites and stopping the flow of toxic fentanyl.
Without these and other measures, “it’s discouragingly hard to see how it’s going to get a lot better,” Dr. Henry said.
Evan Wood, executive director of the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use, said while political leaders and policy-makers recognize there is a crisis, they aren’t taking the bold steps required to address it, such as decriminalization or providing much greater access to safe consumption sites.
“I think there’s a failure to really look at the structural reasons that the situation is worsening,” he said. “There still seems to be a lot of hesitancy for bold action.”
Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor told reporters this issue “keeps me up at night” because of the damage it’s causing. She called the opioid crisis her “No. 1 priority."