Thunder Bay can build safety by tackling housing, racism, policing, addiction and youth supports

THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Thunder Bay is one of Canada’s most naturally gifted cities: a Lake Superior community with access to wilderness, lakes, rivers, trails, restaurants, arts, sport and higher education.

Thunder Bay promotes itself as a gateway to more than 500,000 square kilometres of Canadian wilderness with more than 150,000 lakes, rivers and streams, while also offering a waterfront, hiking, mountain biking and award-winning restaurants.

Our city has huge, yet all too often, unrealized potential. Perhaps the biggest issue that is holding back Thunder Bay is that instead of many people realising there are problems, some of the narrative is that all is fine – and it is only a few ‘Fringe Rebels’ holding us back.

Not realising that we have problems in our city

In winter, we have amazing alpine and nordic skiing, snowmobiling, snowshoeing. In summer we have access to water sports, boating, canoeing, sailing, fishing and hiking.

Sadly however, that promise sits beside a harder truth

Thunder Bay continues to face serious and persistent problems: violent crime, drug toxicity, homelessness, anti-Indigenous racism and years of scrutiny involving the Thunder Bay Police Service and its civilian oversight, the Thunder Bay Police Services Board.

The way forward is not a slogan

It is a long-term civic reset built on housing, trust, Indigenous leadership, accountable policing, addiction care, youth opportunity and regional co-operation.

The City’s Contradiction Is Real — And It Can Be Changed

Thunder Bay should not defined only by crisis.

Our city has Lakehead University, Confederation College, NOSM University a medical school, and the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, a regional law school serving Northern Ontario.

How many cities have a law school, and medical school with our population.

Those institutions give the city the ingredients many communities lack: research capacity, professional training, health-care education, legal expertise and young people who can become the next workforce for public safety, social services, housing, justice, business and Indigenous-led governance.

Yet far too often Thunder Bay appears in the national media for the problems our city faces. So it is apparent that assets alone do not overcome trauma and do not build a better national image for Thunder Bay.

For some of the civic leaders in the community, there is an overwhelming feeling that the national media is uninterested in reporting on the stream of good news from the COTB. The consistent message has been “all is well, and the community is working together to make it better”.

That message is being sent and isn’t being received.

Statistics Canada reported Thunder Bay’s 2024 Crime Severity Index at 107.7, up eight per cent from 2023, with a crime rate of 6,867 incidents per 100,000 population.

Statistics Canada also reported Thunder Bay recorded Canada’s highest homicide rate among census metropolitan areas in 2024, rising to 6.08 per 100,000.

Those numbers should be read carefully.

Thunder Bay’s relatively small population means each homicide has a larger per-capita impact than it would in Toronto, Montréal or Vancouver.

But the pattern is still a warning. High violence, public disorder, addiction, poverty and mistrust in institutions are not separate problems. They feed one another.

Start By Telling The Truth Without Branding The City As Broken

Thunder Bay cannot market its way out of the problem. Nor should it allow national headlines to reduce the city to a caricature. The first step is disciplined truth-telling: publish the data, name the harm, measure what is improving, and stop treating crime, homelessness, racism and addiction as separate files.

Thunder Bay’s Community Safety and Well-Being Plan already points in that direction.

The city says the plan is meant to address root causes including housing, mental health, racism and community belonging, and it is being updated for 2026-30 to reflect current realities.

That update should become Thunder Bay’s central civic document, not another report that sits on a shelf.

Council should require a public dashboard tracking violent crime, overdose deaths, encampments, shelter use, police response outcomes, racism reports, youth program access, supportive housing units, treatment wait-lists and implementation of police oversight recommendations.

Rebuild Policing Around Trust, Not Just Enforcement

Thunder Bay needs strong enforcement against gun violence, organized drug trafficking and repeat violent offending. But policing will not work if large parts of the community do not trust the institution.

The Office of the Independent Police Review Director’s Broken Trust review found significant deficiencies in Thunder Bay Police Service investigations involving Indigenous people and said systemic racism existed at an institutional level.

The report made 44 recommendations, including reinvestigation of certain deaths, external peer review of sudden death and homicide investigations, a permanent advisory group involving the police chief and Indigenous leadership, and formal acknowledgement of racism by police leadership and the police services board.

The civilian oversight record has also been troubled.

The Ontario Civilian Police Commission administrator’s final report said “there is much work to be done” by the board and the service, urged the board to work collaboratively, and recommended regular public reporting on outstanding recommendations from the OIPRD, OCPC, inquests and expert panel processes.

The next move is clear: Thunder Bay should insist on a single public tracker for all police-related recommendations, with each item marked complete, in progress, delayed or rejected, and with plain-language explanations.

The police service’s 2025-28 strategic plan says it is intended to guide priorities, resource allocation and performance measurement by the board and service. That plan must be tested against lived experience, especially from Indigenous families, youth, people experiencing homelessness and racialized residents.

The Inspector General of Policing began an inspection of the Thunder Bay Police Service and board in 2024, focused on death and missing-person investigations, with a findings report expected in early 2026.

Thunder Bay should treat that report as a public accountability moment, not a defensive communications challenge.

Put Indigenous Leadership At The Centre

Anti-Indigenous racism is not a public relations problem. It is a public safety problem, a health problem, a housing problem and an economic problem.

Nationally, Statistics Canada reported Indigenous people made up 30 per cent of homicide victims in 2024 while representing five per cent of Canada’s population. The agency said the overrepresentation is rooted in historical and present-day effects of colonization, including systemic discrimination, poverty and intergenerational trauma.

Locally, Thunder Bay’s racism reporting program has documented the reality of racism and discrimination in the city, particularly for Indigenous people and increasingly for other racialized groups. The program was designed to provide baseline data, referrals and locally relevant insight into where and how racism is experienced.

Thunder Bay’s path forward must therefore shift power, not simply consult. Indigenous organizations, Fort William First Nation, regional First Nations, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, Matawa communities, urban Indigenous service providers, Elders, youth and families must be decision-makers in safety, housing, homelessness, policing, public health and downtown revitalization.

That means funding Indigenous-led spaces, not just inviting Indigenous representatives to city tables.

It also means ensuring Indigenous youth who come to Thunder Bay for school, medical care, court, family reasons or opportunity are met with safe housing, transportation, mentorship, recreation, cultural support and rapid response when they are missing or at risk.

Treat Homelessness As A Housing System Failure, Not A Street Disorder Problem

Thunder Bay’s visible homelessness is one of the clearest signs that existing systems are overloaded. The 2024 Point-in-Time Count reported at least 557 people experiencing homelessness were surveyed during a 24-hour period, and more than three out of four identified as Indigenous.

Across the city, as summer arrives, residents are seeing tents popping up in what

The response cannot be limited to encampment removal, shelter beds and police calls.

Those may manage immediate risk, but they do not end homelessness.

The evidence-based direction is permanent housing with supports. Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi project describes Housing First as immediate permanent housing combined with wraparound supports, including choice, recovery orientation, individualized services and community integration.

Thunder Bay needs a practical housing surge: modular supportive housing, acquisition of motels or older buildings for conversion, rent supplements tied to support workers, more transitional housing for people leaving treatment or jail, and an Indigenous-led housing stream that respects Indigenous data sovereignty.

Thunder Bay’s own homelessness governance work already recognizes that most people experiencing homelessness locally are Indigenous and that data-sharing and funding decisions must involve Indigenous community entities.

The city cannot do this alone.

The District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board, Ontario, Canada, Indigenous governments and local non-profits must be at the same table with one target: reduce unsheltered homelessness every year, publicly and measurably.

Build A Full Addiction Continuum: Prevention, Treatment, Harm Reduction, Enforcement And Housing

Thunder Bay’s drug crisis requires more than one camp’s preferred answer.

Enforcement alone will not stop addiction. Harm reduction alone will not stop trafficking. Treatment alone will not help people who cannot get housing. Housing alone will not reverse a toxic drug supply.

The Thunder Bay Drug Strategy already uses a five-pillar model: prevention, treatment, harm reduction, enforcement and housing. It also notes that Indigenous people may have lower rates of substance use but experience higher rates of addiction linked to colonization, intergenerational trauma, inadequate services, inequity and discriminatory policy.

What perhaps is needed in to examine the real success rate of the program. That needs to come from an outside source. Perhaps First Nation leadership, health professionals, and experts could do reality audits of the program?

That model should be expanded, not abandoned.

Thunder Bay needs faster access to detox and withdrawal management, more residential treatment beds, more opioid agonist therapy access, culturally safe land-based healing, recovery housing, outreach, naloxone, drug-checking where feasible, and focused police work against people importing and exploiting the toxic drug supply.

The Public Health Agency of Canada research has reported that federally exempted supervised consumption sites responded to more than 60,000 overdose events between 2017 and 2024 with no reported on-site fatalities, while studies have observed lower emergency service use, fewer non-fatal overdoses and reduced injection-related complications.

Thunder Bay should debate service location, community safety standards and accountability honestly.

But it should not pretend the choice is between compassion and order.

A serious city does both: it saves lives, treats addiction as health care, protects neighbourhoods from exploitation, and targets the criminal networks profiting from the drug trade.

Invest In Youth Before Crisis Becomes A Court File

Every homicide, overdose, trafficking arrest or violent assault has a backstory. Often it includes trauma, school disconnection, unstable housing, untreated mental health needs, poverty, addiction in the family, racism, violence or lack of belonging.

The evidence-based crime prevention work from Public Safety Canada points to programs that have been shown or considered effective, including school-based supports, family programs, mentoring, after-school recreation, youth gang intervention and improved street lighting or environmental design.

Thunder Bay should build a youth safety guarantee: every young person at high risk of violence, exploitation, chronic homelessness or justice involvement should have access to a navigator, safe recreation, mental health support, cultural programming, school re-engagement, family support and employment pathways.

This is where Lakehead University, Confederation College, NOSM University, the law school, school boards, sports organizations, Indigenous youth programs and employers can play larger roles.

Thunder Bay should turn its education assets into a prevention system: placements for students in social work, law, nursing, education, policing, para-medicine and addictions; mentorship for high-risk youth; research evaluation of what works; and paid training pathways into local jobs.

Make Downtown And Neighbourhood Safety Visible And Humane

Residents and business owners need to feel safe. People experiencing homelessness and addiction also need to be safe.

These goals are not opposites.

Thunder Bay should focus on visible, non-hostile public safety: better lighting, winter warming options, public washrooms, needle recovery, storefront activation, community ambassadors, crisis outreach, foot patrols, rapid cleanup, safe transit stops and co-response teams that include mental health and addiction workers.

A safer downtown is not built by moving vulnerable people from block to block.

It is built by reducing the number of people left outside, reducing public drug use through health pathways, disrupting predatory trafficking, supporting businesses, and ensuring residents see consistent, fair enforcement of the rules.

Create A Regional Compact, Because Thunder Bay Serves More Than Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay is the largest city in Northwestern Ontario. That role is a strength, but it also means the city carries regional pressures in health care, justice, education, shopping, transportation, emergency shelter and policing.

Many people in crisis arrive from outside city boundaries because Thunder Bay has the hospital, court, jail, college, university, airport, services and shelters. That reality should not be used to blame other communities. It should be used to demand a better funding model.

Thunder Bay should push for a formal regional compact involving the city, Fort William First Nation, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, Grand Council Treaty #3, and Chiefs of Ontario, regional First Nations, provincial ministries, federal departments, TBDSSAB, health agencies, police services, school boards and post-secondary institutions.

The compact should set five-year targets for housing, treatment, youth safety, Indigenous-led services, policing reform and violent crime reduction.

Measure Success In Public, Every Month

The public should not have to wait for annual reports to know whether Thunder Bay is improving.

A credible dashboard would track the number of people housed from encampments, shelter occupancy, overdose deaths and reversals, treatment wait times, violent incidents, youth program access, police clearance rates, missing-person response times, racism reports, complaints outcomes, downtown business vacancies and implementation of oversight recommendations.

Some numbers will look bad at first. That is not failure.

It is what happens when a city stops hiding from reality.

The Bottom Line

Thunder Bay can overcome its difficulties, but not by choosing between enforcement and compassion, or between economic development and social repair.

The city needs all of them.

The practical formula is straightforward: build housing, confront racism, complete police reform, support Indigenous leadership, treat addiction as a health crisis, enforce against violent offenders and traffickers, invest in youth, make public spaces safer, and measure progress openly.

Thunder Bay’s natural beauty, restaurants, education institutions and cultural strengths are not window dressing. They are the foundation for recovery.

But Thunder Bay will only reach its potential when safety, dignity and trust are treated as core infrastructure — as important as roads, water, parks and economic development.