Duane Hicks
Alcohol misuse costs everyone, and now with the advent of beer and wine being sold in grocery stores, the Northwestern Health Unit is asking area municipalities to develop or update policies to address where possible issues of availability and marketing of alcohol.
Coun. Paul Ryan, the Fort Frances council rep on the health unit board, said at Monday night’s meeting that the town should support the health unit.
He also urged the town to go further by making a case to the provincial government that the alcohol industry should help pay for policing and other services negatively impacted by alcohol misuse.
“I think we should jump on this,” stressed Coun. Ryan.
“I think we have an opportunity here coming up at AMO [the Association of Municipalities of Ontario] to speak to the proper ministries about this situation.”
Coun. Ryan noted the town receives Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund (OMPF) dollars to help foot policing costs, but it comes “nowhere near” the amount needed to cover them entirely.
“We have a base rate that we pay the OPP plus the rate per call,” he explained.
“I don’t have the numbers in front of me but I’m sure that alcohol-related calls are very high,” he added.
“I know in Sioux Lookout, they’re over 90 percent.”
Coun. Ryan said the provincial government collects taxes on gasoline, then gives the town an annual rebate to use toward fixing its infrastructure.
The container industry, meanwhile, helps pay for the town to recycle. Why should alcohol be different?
“I think it’s about time the alcohol producers, and the billions of dollars they’re taking in tax money due to the sale of alcohol, should be chipping in on our police costs and our social costs,” Coun. Ryan argued.
He noted the health unit has “set the tone” by laying out what alcohol abuse costs municipalities.
“Now’s the time to act,” he reiterated.
“They’ve got to chip in somewhere down the road and I think a great opportunity exists right now to start bugging them about it.”
Town council sent the health unit’s resolution to the committee level for review, with a resolution expected at its July 11 meeting.
Council also agreed to present its case to the appropriate ministry reps at the AMO conference Aug. 14-17 in Windsor.
According to the Northwestern Health Unit, alcohol is the second-leading cause of death, disease, and disability in Canada and causally linked to more than 60 diseases and injuries.
The economic cost of alcohol misuse is incurred at every level, including direct health care, law enforcement, the judiciary system, lost productivity, and premature deaths.
It all amounts to an estimated $473 per year in a cost to each and every Canadian due to alcohol, the health unit noted.
More than 60 percent of the people living in the health unit’s catchment area exceed Canada’s Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines, compared to the provincial average of 45.3 percent.
A total of 23.3 percent of adults report episodes on heavy drinking in the past year, compared to the provincial average of 17.9 percent.
And the hospitalization rate from alcohol misuse in 2015 was 232.5 per 100,000 people, which is much higher than the Ontario average of 48.4 people per 100,000.
A total of 54.1 percent of students under the age of 18 partake in under-age drinking here, compared to the Ontario average of 31 percent.
Some 76 percent of students in Grades 9-12 in Northwestern Ontario have had five or more drinks during at least one occasion in the past 12 months.
On top of that, the province has increased alcohol availability by allowing its sale in grocery stores.
And that, according to the health unit, exposes children “to a perception of alcohol being a normal and ordinary commodity.”
