Nestled between Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout appears to be a typical northern Ontario town.

It’s made up of a few roads and a newly minted roundabout. A hunting shop, a coffee spot and an LCBO fill out its downtown core.

The quiet municipality is home to just under 6,000 people and a railway stop served by the VIA Rail train between Toronto and Vancouver.

Yet, local officers in Sioux Lookout have the most detention cells of any Ontario Provincial Police detachment and the force makes around 4,000 arrests every year.

Much of the work police take on — backed by an army of overworked and underfunded local organizations — stems from Sioux Lookout’s status as Ontario’s hub of the north.

A lack of resources means there are many times cells in the OPP’s cells almost double as accommodation for often intoxicated people who have been left without any other option.

The town has a key northern hospital, a busy domestic airport, and a large Service Ontario location.

While fewer than 6,000 people live in the town year-round, more than 25,000 people rely on its hospital and other facilities to access basic necessities like health care, dental appointments and government services.

The local police commander says that, although only a small number of those who visit the town end up in cells, many of the arrests they make are people not from Sioux Lookout “who have nowhere else to go” other than police cells for their safety.

Henry Wall, CEO of the Kernora District Services Board, said Sioux Lookout has “always been a bit of a gathering place” throughout history.

“Services have been established there for people to come to us to Sioux Lookout, to fly into the community,” he said.

With thousands coming in and out of the town every month, local leaders say a lack of resources means people are falling through the cracks.

They add that First Nations communities — who they say have been failed for decades by provincial and federal governments — are the ones who feel the lack of resources the most.

Stretched local services, a lack of housing and the insidious drip of addiction mean local police end up responding to calls relating to alcohol again and again.

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Global News
February 7, 2024