Staying the same

Despite fears that a methadone clinic would scare away potential business, many area residents say their neighbourhood has been business as usual since the Frederica Street treatment centre began operating.

The Ontario Addiction Treatment Centre opened in July and sparked concerns from business owners that it could have a negative impact on the area’s image and drive away customers. Almost five months later, residents in the area say they don’t think the treatment centre has done that.

Carolyn Everard, 69, moved back to Thunder Bay from St. Catharines, Ont. 11 years ago. She said she was tired of living in the area before a clinic opened up down the street and wanted to move out of the Spence Court apartment building sometime in the next year. She doesn’t feel safe to go out at night and added that crime was the main reason why she wants to move.

She’s concerned about crime in her neighbourhood, but said the methadone clinic isn’t the problem.

"The neighbourhood is terrible," Everard said. "It’s sickening here. It isn’t for seniors anymore. It was in the past, when I first moved in here, but not now. I’m not bothered by the treatment centre. I’m getting out of here anyway."

Across the road, Mark Abraham shared Everard’s opinion about the treatment centre.

Abraham, a sheet metal worker, moved down the street from Home Avenue to Amelia Street two years ago. He said the area already had a lot of crime. A new treatment centre hasn’t changed that.

"There is a little bit more crime than I expected when I moved in and I don’t like going out at night too much," Abraham said. "I know a few people who have been doing Oxycontin and now they’re going to that methadone clinic. It’s what I hear anyway. I’d like to know where these people get the pills from because I thought they had to be prescribed."

While the methadone treatment centre may not have changed the neighbourhood, he added that he hoped the treatment centre would do some good to help people struggling with addiction.

Westfort Coun. Joe Virdiramo said he hadn’t heard any complaints about the treatment centre since it opened.

"No one has called me about it," Coun. Virdiramo said. "I know that the Westfort Village Associate has been keeping an eye on it."

Westfort Village Association member and owner of J.B. Evans Jack Moro said he's still concerned that it could scare away downtown shoppers.

"We know that we have seen a lot of different faces in the area but it has not created a scene or anything negative," Moro said. "Things might be a little different when they have a full compliment of patients but so far we don’t know."

Moro added that they didn’t have any problem with people seeking help with their addictions but would have liked the treatment to have been administered at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre instead of at a clinic.

"We want people to get help…no question," he said. "The benefit of this kind of treatment is seemingly very valuable to the owners of the clinics, they own quite a number of them. That value should go back to our hospital not to independent business people."