To the editor:
It’s common coffee shop gossip around the area that other communities have been exporting their homeless and addicted to North Bay.
It’s easy to feel this way when the visibility of these social problems has become so prominent in our community.
Also among the rumours and gossip are threads claiming that local politicians and agencies may have actually encouraged and profited from this somehow. I have to wonder though, is there any truth to these rumours?
Has there been any investigation? (I know investigative journalism is a thing of the past) It seems to me that these are bigger social issues than North Bay. These problems seem to be everywhere, not just North Bay.
I’m not writing this letter to stir up a conversation of user comments (in fact would prefer if the discussion was shut off for this if published). I’m also not trying to stir the pot.
I truly feel compassion for this population and believe we need to do more as a society.
That said, I would really like to know if North Bay is taking on more than its share, and why. If this population has been brought here artificially, then who is behind it, and why? Can we have some investigative journalism? Or maybe we have had one, and I missed it.
Verdon Vaillancourt
North Bay
See: Council discusses transient homeless population sent to access North Bay's 'hub' of services
And: Homeless in North Bay is the 2022 Story of the Year voted by you
