Province battling opioid crisis

The province is spending an additional $222-million over three years to help battle the ongoing opioid crisis.

Health Minister Eric Hoskins says more harm reduction workers will be added and supply of an overdose-reversing drug will be expanded, among other measures.

A report on the Health Unit’s website, compiled in July, shows the average of opioid-related deaths between 2010 and 2015 was 14 in the North Bay Parry Sound Region.

That’s about double the number recorded annually between 2005 and 2009.

(With files from The Canadian Press)

(FILE PHOTO courtesy North Bay Police Service)