Each week, Huntsville’s own Grant Nickalls entertains us, inspires us, make us laugh and sometimes makes us cry, but always he reminds us why Huntsville is the best place on earth to call home.
This week in Our Town, the first step to getting rid of a problem is admitting that you have one.
Missed some of the Our Town with Grant Nickalls series? Click here to check out past videos.
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Michael A.Stickland says
So true Grant. Thanks for the video . All the best to Huntsville. Live clean live real … you are absolutely right Grant.
Kind Regards and Best Wishes
Michael A. Stickland
Thomas R Spivak says
You are so right Grant, this is not a new problem in Muskoka. We have had so much tragedy and needless deaths in our community going back decades and the problem continues to get worse. I don’t don’t know if it’s an attempt to protect families, a desire to make Muskoka look like a vacation dream destination, or just not caring but if these deaths and criminal activity were more widely reported and people understood the problem we have perhaps it would bring to light the identification of the people that sell this death. This can’t go on, this is a small community and there is absolutely no excuse for it to continue. Our community leaders should be sitting down at the table with our police services and demand more action and not accept another convoluted,misleading, double talk press release about the great job being done. It’s not enough. How many more lives need be destroyed by this?
Marcia Frost says
Addiction is far from a simple problem with a simple solution. As the gap between rich and poor broadens in this community the issue of addiction is becoming more pronounced.
We live in a community where many CAN’T afford to live. A lack of affordable housing means a growing number of our population are forced to live on a friend’s couch, bouncing from place to place, spending warm nights outside and having trouble keeping employment etc. We can’t even keep the mens’ shelter open (and the women’s is always at capacity) and i keep hearing people crying bloody murder at the thought of a safe injection site (where users would have access to life-saving measures and help to get off the drugs).
The message this sends to our poor and working class is that this town does’nt care about anyone but the rich and the tourists.
This community invests little to nothing in its working poor population (and we’re the ones serving all those rich tourists!).
I’ve seen many just give up; it’s really hard to live in muskoka! Couple that with past traumas, abuse and family issues (and almost nothing available in affordable therapy with real professionals)…i’m not surprised so many are turning to drugs/alcohol to cope.
We’re losing our workforce. Many men can’t get to work because they’ve lost their licenses to DUI’s. Many of our workforce are simply incapable of showing up and working because of their drug/alchol abuse struggles. We’ve lost workers because they had to move out of town just so they could afford a half decent rent.
Talk to any employer in town, they’ll tell u they’re really hurting for staff! But more and more people visit here every summer.
Things are getting SO bad and it threatens the image of Huntsville as this beautiful place to visit.
This town is literally crumbling under our feet! The roads are utter garbage and embarrassingly bad, we can’t find people to work, we’re losing locals every weekend to overdose, SO many can’t find a place to live because huntsville has rental prices on par with Toronto but can’t offer people reliable public transit (many cannot afford $800-$1000+ in rent AND a vehicle!!) or resources that a larger centre can offer (so why is my rent $800/m pls utilities for a tiny one bedrm with no outdoor space and NO parking?!)
It’s ridiculous, three people i work with right now are losing their rentals due to house owners cashing in on the market and selling their properties.
This is NOT going to end well for this town….and yup, you’re right, it’s mostly greed.
Does a landlord really need to be making $1000+ of tenants for 1 or 2 bedrms?? How much could their mortgages possibly be?! How much profit do they really need?! It’s out of control.
But i’m not surprised that some decide to sell drugs to pay the bills (it’s short sighted and it’s destroying this community but they’er often desperate people, similar to their customers).
Huntsville needs to WAKE UP!!!!! Things are getting worse and soon no one will be able to hide it from those tourists we SO want to woo and cater too.
It’s gotta be a bottom-up solution.
Drug addiction is simply a symptom of a greater problem…and it’s NOT a moral issue. I’ve never met anyone with a drug problem who enjoys it or wants to be in that position. Precarious living conditions take a tole on people.
Invest in the locals who are having one hellova time making ends meet or this whole place is gonna go belly up….i’m already looking at moving further north just so i can afford it. That’ll be one less reliable worker in huntsville….look forward to a mass exodus of the workforce if things continue this way!
Eileen Brown says
Grant I totally agree with your statement about the deadly drug that is out on streets not just in Huntsville but here in Orillia too. I have lost two cousins to it this year and past students who were once happy wee Kindergarten students. It is so sad to see those so young gone and relatives of which now are only in our memory . We all need to speak up . Thank you for doing that is such an eloquent way.