Smith looks forward to return of ‘old normal’

Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith says he doesn’t like the phrase “new normal” to describe how people might go about their business when the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us.

“I’d like to have the old normal back,” he said, meaning he’d like to return to a full-house lacrosse game at the Memorial Centre, for example.

In an interview Tuesday, Smith said he’s looking forward to 2021 and the promise of a COVID-19 vaccine for Canadians.

But he said many of the details about when vaccines might be widely available in Peterborough remain to be determined.

Still, Smith is confident the vaccine rollout will go well because the province appointed the former head of the Canadian Armed Forces, Gen. Rick Hillier, to lead it.

“I think he (Hillier) was a great choice,” Smith said. Meanwhile, Peterborough continues to face a steep increase in opioid-related deaths, with a record-high 37 deaths suspected or confirmed to have been from drug poisonings in 2020 (up from 30 deaths in 2019).

Peterborough still doesn’t have a supervised drug consumption and treatment centre, but that could change: in December applications were made to both the Ontario government and to Health Canada to add those services to the opioid hub on Simcoe Street where PARN operates its harm reduction program.

The proposal is for PARN and 360 Degree Nurse Practitioner Led Clinic add supervised consumption and treatment to the hub. Smith said on Monday he expects the application is currently under review.

Some developers and business owners have said they’re concerned that having supervised drug consumption services in that location downtown — in the former Greyhound bus station at Aylmer and Simcoe streets — will hamper investment in the downtown.

Smith emphasizes that this can be smoothed over if the focus is on treatment — not on supervised drug consumption.

“When the focus is on the most appropriate service needed, you get some buy-in,” he said. “You won’t get buy-in when there’s a lack of full services or a perceived lack of full services.”

Peterborough needs treatment services, he said — residential treatment, for example, as well as detox beds and a variety of specialized programs for recovery from alcohol, street drugs or prescription drugs.

Furthermore Smith said he’s concerned the middle-class people who died at home of drug poisonings last year won’t avail themselves of supervised drug consumption services — he thinks they may continue to use at home. But they do need treatment options.

“You get better by getting treatment,” Smith said. “You don’t get better by getting high.”