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THUNDER BAY — Residents of Thunder Bay’s McKellar Ward put concerns over issues of homelessness and addiction front and centre as they grilled the man who will, as of Monday, take the reins of the city’s beleaguered police force.
Cumming Street resident Dave Miskimins said he and his wife had been instructed to shelter in their home multiple times by police SWAT teams in recent years, calling that a visceral symbol of growing drug and disorder issues in the neighbourhood. “We’re seniors, but we’re not dead,” she said. “We’re afraid to come home in the dark because we don’t want to walk across the parking lot and run into any of them.”
DSSAB leaders have called for a possible expansion of community policing at its properties following a daytime shootout last week at its Spence Court apartment. However, Taddeo emphasized police aren’t always the right agency to lead the response on issues that relate more to homelessness, poverty, and addiction than to crime.However, the outgoing acting chief argued that badly needed shift is being held back by a lack of resources from upper levels of government for services like supportive housing and addictions treatment.
Without more action to reduce the demand for illicit drugs by supporting people out of addiction, Taddeo suggested, police action will have a limited impact. At least one resident expressed frustration with the city’s supportive approach to homeless encampments, sparring verbally with Hamilton over the issue.
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