Cambridge working to address discarded needles

CAMBRIDGE — The City of Cambridge has launched a number of initiatives to deal with an increase in discarded needles and drug paraphernalia being found in outdoor locations across the city.

In an interview Monday, Mayor Doug Craig said it was in September that city employees started to report a major increase in discarded needles being found.

It’s at that point the city started to put together a “very aggressive program to deal with this situation,” said Craig.

One of the city’s initiatives includes providing a growing number of community-minded volunteers wanting to clean up the city, with supplies and training on how to safely handle and discard needles.

The group, A Clean Cambridge, has carried out community cleanups for the past two weekends.

The group formed a month ago as a response to a growing number of social media posts about needles.

Then, reports of a Cambridge toddler being pricked by a needle on Sept. 27 along the Grand River furthered interest in the group. The Facebook page for the group now has a following of nearly 5,500 members.

On Sunday, a group of 50 volunteers found nearly 650 needles in the area of “East Galt,” said Mary Jane Kerkhof Sherman, A Clean Cambridge organizer and spokesperson.

“The leaves are falling, the snow is coming; we want to make sure that we can get the kids areas where they’re going to be playing, safe,” she said.

Kerkhof Sherman added that the group will also attend a city council meeting to talk about next steps in dealing with the problem.

“Everybody just wants to make this better,” she said. “We need to find a solution; us cleaning up right now is just short term.”

The mayor visited the group during the Sunday cleanup and thanked them for their efforts and detailed how the city is dealing with the issue.

“I thanked them on behalf of all of us, I mean that’s what a city is all about,” he said. “It’s about its community groups and people taking ownership.”

Along with city employees providing volunteers with sharps training, staff will also accompany volunteers on cleanups as they did the past two weekends.

Cambridge has also committed to cleaning up needles and related debris on private property and continuing cleanup on city property.

The city will also make sure to co-ordinate cleanups with the region or the Grand River Conservation Authority if there are reports of needles found in those areas.

“What we’ve done is we’ve taken on the responsibility regardless of the jurisdiction,” said Craig, adding that no matter where a resident finds needles they can call the city and it will be taken care of.

The city is also tracking where needles are found in order to identify hot spots for city employees to patrol more frequently.

Additional security cameras will also be installed in the downtown and along trails and while policing is a regional responsibility, the city is working with police to get more patrols in problematic areas.

Craig stresses that this is neither a needle problem nor a Cambridge problem — it’s bigger than that.

“The needles are only evidence of a much bigger problem,” he said. “The much bigger problem is drug addiction and fentanyl and we know that, so this really involves the federal and provincial governments.”

Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services responded to 529 overdose-related calls between January and September, which is up 45.5 per cent from the same period last year, according to Waterloo Region Integrated Drugs Strategy.

Craig said he will ask Waterloo Regional council on Wednesday to hold a special meeting to deal with the issues of homelessness, the opioid epidemic, and also needle pickup.