City of Timmins launches pilot sharp collection program
When people find drug litter on public property in Timmins, the city wants them to contact Service Timmins.
Officials said people can call or email and employees from the waste management department will clean it up, part of a pilot project aimed at simplifying how discarded needles and syringes are cleaned up safely.
Since October 2023, city officials said every municipal worker now gets sharp disposal training. As of May 1, public works will carry out collection of drug litter on public property such as parks, roads, streets, sidewalks and boulevards.
“We have dedicated individuals that are out, doing regular road patrols or investigations anyways, and … they will be dispatched to, to collect sharps where they find them,” said Ken Krecel, director of public works and environmental services.
“Council brought it up in 2023 and it was a really important topic for our community, especially because we had nothing in place prior,” said Meagan Baranyk, the city’s community programs manager.
“We had an agency take over (but) it wasn't a right fit, it was an agency that was an emergency shelter and it really does align better with the City of Timmins, taking it over with the waste management.”
For the time being, collection is limited to weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sharps reported over the weekend will be picked up on Monday.
“So the phone number is 264-1331, so that would be the Service Timmins,” Baranyk said.
“But again, a lot of people have access to the Internet so they can put in a service ticket … (and) if you put in a service ticket, your email is there and then you can have that closed door where once the sharp is picked up, you'll be notified.”
Colleen Losier, who owns Beautiful You Aesthetics on Algonquin Boulevard, said she wonders what will happen on commercial properties.
“Every single night for the past several months, we've been having homeless people come behind our building and shoot up drugs and leave their dirty needles just laying around,” Losier said.
“Everywhere in the parking lot behind our building is a cesspool … My husband and my son come out almost on a daily basis -- at least three or four times a week minimum -- to pick up all the needles.”
Her son recently was cut by a needle he didn’t know was stuffed in a newspaper.
o Download our app to get local alerts on your device
o Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
“He was bleeding (and) it was swollen,” she said.
“We went to the hospital.”
Krecel said under the Municipal Act, city employees are not allowed to enter private property, prohibiting them from picking up needles at commercial locations.
City officials said business owners can call Service Timmins to find out where drug litter may be disposed of.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Signs of Alzheimer’s were everywhere. Then his brain improved
Blood biomarkers of telltale signs of early Alzheimer’s disease in the brain of his patient, 55-year-old entrepreneur Simon Nicholls, had all but disappeared in a mere 14 months.
What we've learned so far in the Trump hush money trial and what to watch for as it wraps up
Testimony in the hush money trial of Donald Trump is set to conclude in the coming days, putting the landmark case on track for jury deliberations that will determine whether it ends in a mistrial, an acquittal — or the first-ever felony conviction of a former American president.
Sentencing trial set to begin for Florida man who executed 5 women at a bank in 2019
Zephen Xaver walked into a central Florida bank in 2019, fatally shot five women and then called police to tell them what he did. Now 12 jurors will decide whether the 27-year-old former prison guard trainee is sentenced to death or life without parole.
'How do you get hypothermia in a prison?' Records show hospitalizations among Virginia inmates
The Virginia State Police investigator seemed puzzled about what the inmate was describing: "unbearable" conditions at a prison so cold that toilet water would freeze over and inmates were repeatedly treated for hypothermia.
The Israel-Hamas war is testing whether campuses are sacrosanct places for speech and protest
Administrators on some campuses have called in local police to break up pro-Palestinian protesters demanding that their schools divest from Israel in demonstrations that Israel's allies say are antisemitic and make campuses unsafe. From Columbia University in New York to the University of California, Los Angeles, thousands of students and faculty have been arrested in the past month.
Helicopter carrying Iran's president suffers a 'hard landing,' state TV says without further details
A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi suffered a "hard landing" on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, without immediately elaborating.
Canadian immigration asks medical worker fleeing Gaza if he treated Hamas fighters
Lawyers are questioning Canada’s approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas.
The secret Italian lakes that most tourists don't know about
Italy has dozens of secret smaller lakes that boast superb scenery, unknown to mass tourism, where locals get together on day trips and enjoy picnics.
Flammable kids' sleepwear, salmonella-contaminated chips: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued recalls for various items this week, including kids' bassinets, chips, and stoves. Here's what to watch out for.