By Jacqueline M. St.Pierre, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Manitoulin Expositor MANITOULIN—The North has learned to count in absences. Empty chairs at kitchen tables. Snowbanks that remember the shape of someone who never came home. Ambulance lights flickering across frozen bays like a warning no one can outrun. Last week, in nearby Sault Ste. Marie, the federal government announced more than $11.4 million through the Emergency Treatment Fund (ETF) for eight projects across Ontario—funding meant to loosen the opioid crisis’ chokehold on communities that have buried too many, too young. For Manitoulin Island and the North Shore of Lake Huron, the announcement lands not as abstract policy, but as a thin, stubborn thread of hope. A region at the epicentre From Manitoulin Island to the North Shore communities stretching east…






