There’s a lot of frustration among members of Timmins council, based on all the stories they’re hearing and things they’re witnessing on city streets.
In person and on social media, they’re hearing all about drug abuse and crime.
At their meeting this week, council decided to ask Police Chief John Gauthier for actual statistics, so they can decide on what resources are needed and where to deploy them.
A strong proponent of the statistics-based approach is Councillor Michelle Boileau. She related that she recently saw an incident of intravenous drug use in broad daylight on Pine Street.
“I have been hearing some rather extreme solutions from some residents,” she added, “but unfortunately, without really knowing what the situation is in fact and numbers, I wouldn’t be comfortable moving forward with some of them.”
Mayor George Pirie says he’s confident that working as a community, a solution can be implemented.
“We want to grown this city and we want to be a city where people want to go,” he told his seven councillors. “So we will get this done. Very confident about that.”
Prior to the discussion, chief administrative officer Dave Landers outlined what city hall and its partner agencies are already doing to stem drug abuse and crime, especially downtown.