The Addiction Crisis in St. Catharines

St. Catharines, the largest city in Niagara Region, sits at the centre of a prolonged opioid and addiction crisis. Niagara Region declared a state of emergency for opioid addiction, homelessness, and mental health in March 2023 — an acknowledgment that local systems were overwhelmed. The region's only supervised consumption and treatment site, CTS Niagara (operated by Positive Living Niagara at 120 Queenston Street, St. Catharines), recorded over 88,000 visits and reversed more than 1,500 overdoses since opening in 2019. In 2025, the Ontario government cut provincial funding to the site, threatening its closure — a move advocates warn will push drug use into the open and trigger a spike in overdose deaths, citing the experience of Hamilton, where paramedic overdose calls more than doubled after that city's consumption site closed in May 2025, reaching 199 calls in a single month (February 2026). Niagara EMS responded to 1,005 suspected opioid overdoses in 2021 and 734 in 2023, with deaths following a similar trajectory — below 2021 peaks but rising again year-over-year. Fentanyl drives the majority of toxicity deaths. No city-level data for St. Catharines alone is publicly available; figures reflect the broader Niagara Region.

Canada recorded approximately 7,560 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in 2023, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada — roughly 21 deaths per day. The crisis has claimed over 47,000 lives since 2016, when systematic national tracking began. Fentanyl and its analogues are present in the vast majority of deaths across all provinces. While British Columbia and Alberta have historically driven the highest raw numbers, Ontario's toll — 2,639 deaths in 2023 and 2,231 in 2024 — makes it one of the most severely affected provinces by volume. The 2024 Ontario decline is encouraging but fragile; public health officials caution that the increasingly adulterated supply (benzodiazepines, nitazenes) may reverse gains. Federal and provincial responses remain contested, with supervised consumption sites, safe supply programs, and decriminalization pilots all subject to policy reversals.

01. What is happening in St. Catharines

Note: City-specific data for St. Catharines is limited. Figures reflect Ontario-wide trends.

02. A crisis that did not start this month

Ontario recorded 2,639 opioid toxicity deaths in 2023, declining to 2,231 in 2024 — a 15% reduction and a mortality rate of 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people, down from a pandemic peak of 19.4 per 100,000 in 2021. Despite the downward trend, deaths remain well above pre-pandemic levels. Fentanyl and related substances were detected in more than 83% of Ontario opioid deaths in 2024. Prescription benzodiazepines appeared in 45% of deaths in 2024, up sharply from 33% in 2023, signalling an increasingly toxic and unpredictable drug supply. Ontario's policy shift — replacing supervised consumption sites with HART (Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment) Hubs — has drawn criticism from public health experts who argue the hubs do not replicate the overdose-prevention function of consumption sites.

03. Why is it getting worse?

Several intersecting factors drive the opioid crisis in St. Catharines and Niagara Region. First, the drug supply is increasingly toxic: fentanyl appears in over 83% of Ontario opioid deaths, and illicitly manufactured benzodiazepines are now found in nearly half of all fatal overdoses, making accidental death more likely with every use. Second, Niagara's geography and socioeconomic profile create vulnerability — the region has above-average poverty rates, a shortage of affordable housing, and a growing unhoused population (up 12% to 1,231 people in 2023), all of which correlate strongly with substance use disorder. Third, harm reduction infrastructure is under acute pressure: Ontario's 2025 defunding of CTS Niagara removed the region's only supervised consumption site, and the replacement HART Hub model does not provide on-site overdose monitoring. Hamilton's experience after its site closed — paramedic overdose calls doubling within months — is a direct warning for St. Catharines. Fourth, stigma and limited culturally safe services create barriers for newcomer and racialized communities. Finally, geographic isolation (rural parts of Niagara) limits access to opioid agonist therapy and harm reduction supplies, particularly outside St. Catharines itself.

04. Where hope still lives

Communities across Ontario are responding with naloxone distribution, harm reduction programs, and peer support networks. Every person trained in naloxone use is a potential life saved.

05. In the news

The reporting behind this page:

• As Niagara Region's only safe drug consumption site faces closure, advocates fear more people will dieCBC News · 2025
• Niagara braces for spike in overdoses that Hamilton saw after its supervised drug consumption site closedCBC News · 2025-2026
• Niagara region declares state of emergency for homelessness, mental health and opioid addictionCBC News · 2023-03-02
• The State of Emergency that may never end: Niagara Region grapples with mental health, homelessness and opioid addictionThe Pointer · 2024-03-20
• More than 2,200 died of opioids in Ontario last year as numbers trend downwardCBC News · 2025
• Niagara Ontario Health Team calling for CTS sites alongside HART HubsNiagara Daily News · 2025