“The worst thing is having a grieving parent ask you, ‘What are you going to do about this?’” Nykamp said.

For Nykamp, the fentanyl crisis is literally at his doorstep. He said his female neighbours in downtown Galt are afraid to venture out after dark, and discarded syringes can be found everywhere in his neighbourhood.

“I’ve had people tell me that as soon as their kids are out of high school, they are moving out of Cambridge,” he said.

While Nykamp supports The Bridges, Cambridge’s homeless shelter, and has been involved in raising funds for the organization, it is also part of the problem.

“They (The Bridges) have done a lot of good, but they are overburdened. It’s the place that a lot of people from outside the city are coming to. They can get food, shelter and all the drugs in the world,” he said.

It has long been rumoured other communities are busing their homeless here because of the generosity of people in Waterloo Region and The Bridges.

In a recent report to Cambridge council, officials from The Bridges stated homeless people from outside Waterloo Region can't stay indefinitely. They are accommodated for three nights and then given assistance, when possible, to return to their home community.

Although, The Bridges has zero tolerance for drugs, the wooded hill surrounding the shelter is often littered with drug paraphernalia, as are area parking lots, trails and parks.

Some of those drugs are thought to have been purchased by those passing across Nykamp’s examination table.

Nykamp is now looking at possible solutions to the growing fentanyl crisis. He readily admits, “I don’t have all the answers,” however, he’s looked at the research being done in Europe and Vancouver.

“People might not like it, but one of the things we are going to have to look at is injection sites,” he said.

Nykamp said establishing an injection site in Cambridge might draw addicts from other parts of the region, so sites would also have to be established in Waterloo and Kitchener.

He has also looked at research on two very different types of injection site. The first would be a facility, potentially set up in an industrial area, where people could go to inject their drugs and be monitored by a nurse for 30 minutes before leaving.

The second type of injection site is much more controversial. In this case, drug users are provided with heroin for injection.

“The research shows there are advantages to this type of site,” Nykamp said. “The drugs are regulated. It decreases crime, it suppresses the dealers and the resources are there to provide help and counselling.”

In addition to injection sites, Nykamp said Cambridge needs similar services to those available in Kitchener for counselling and care for those wanting to get clean.

With Waterloo Region distributing 500,000 clean needles annually, Nykamp believes more needs to be done to safely deal with the aftermath of their use.

The further distribution of “sharps” containers alone is not going the fix the problem, according to Nykamp who has heard anecdotally that needles have been found in nearby nursery school playgrounds, restaurant flower beds and along the riverbanks.

"If the city wants to put its focus on the river, it has a lot of work to do,” he said. “It should start by clearing away the brush and undergrowth so people can see what’s going on.”

In addition to dealing with the drug issue, more needs to be done to take people off the street, Nykamp said.

“One of the things we need is more affordable housing,” he said.

Nykamp has already been speaking with city and region officials, and well as staff at different health and social service agencies, about the fentanyl crisis and the impacts it’s having on the community.

“What we need is a grass-roots organization to start dealing with this,” he said. “We can reverse this by working together.”