Ottawa’s lower-income areas are seeing a rise in needle and syringe complaints

By: Cindy Tran

The Rideau-Vanier ward had the highest number of needle and syringe complaints in Ottawa, according to an analysis of data the city uses to track complaints.

Residents in the Rideau-Vanier are calling the Ottawa 311 line about needles and syringes being littered around the area. Since 2016 the area has seen a 23 per cent increase in the number of needle and syringe complaints.

(Hover the cursor over the blue dots to see the number of complaints per year.)

Some experts are saying that there are not enough clinicians to match the rise in the number of people who are suffering from substance abuse – specifically injections.

Monnica Williams is the Canada Research Chair for Mental Health Disparities at the University of Ottawa whose work focuses on ethnic minorities’ mental health as well as drug abuse. She says that with the rise in mental health decline, more people could be turning towards substance abuse which is problematic because Canada is in the middle of an opioid crisis.

“One thing we’ve seen across the board is a decline in mental health,” she says. “A lot of people who are already receiving services had to stop receiving those mental health services because of all the changes and so that added to the difficulties people were having.”

Canada Public Health released Canada-wide statistics based on data from the paramedic services – Emergency Medical Services, which shows a 62 per cent increase in responses to suspected opioid-related overdoses since March 2020. A number of factors have likely contributed to the overdose crisis including increased isolation, stress and anxiety.

“The prolonged periods of isolation also contributed to mental health problems, because we know that social connection is really one of the best cures and preventative measures … and so it’s no surprise that more people are using substances to cope,” says Williams.

(To see the number of complaints per ward hover the cursor over the coloured blocks.)

Some residents in the Rideau-Vanier ward like Myriam Villeneuve have also expressed their concern for what they’ve seen in the area. Villeneuve recently graduate from the University of Ottawa and has been living in the area for five years. She says that although there are many low-income areas it remains safe to live in.

“A lot of houses and buildings are old and could be in better condition, although it’s not the case for every building. Being affordable, Vanier became a hub for lower-income people, and got this long-standing negative image,” says Villeneuve.

The stigma that surrounds the Rideau-Vanier area has been perpetuated throughout the city of Ottawa. Geranda Notten is a professor at the University of Ottawa whose research looks at poverty measures and public policy.

“What I see at a higher level when I analyze poverty data is that poverty often coincides with a whole bunch of other issues it could be mental health issues could be substance abuse issues, it could be there’s a whole list of social problems,” says Notten.

In response to the opioid crisis, the Ontario HIV Treatment Network released a study about the importance of supervised consumption sites. Rob Boyd the Oasis program director at Sandy Hill Community Health Center says that even for them to get a safe injection site – they had to go through several steps.

Some pharmacies in the area are offering naloxone kits which are portable pouches that contain an opioid antidote that can revive an unresponsive person who is overdosing – allowing time to access emergency services.

“It took a lot of commitment to make it happen…Health Canada has made it much easier [since we did it] but it’s still a long process,” says Boyd.