The point: statistics on frostbite and hypothermia, especially among unhoused populations, need to be available to the public. Why don't we know? 

I work at a warming shelter in northern Ontario and I have seen several cases of severe frostbite over the winter. Several of my clients  had moderate to severe frost bite injuries on theirs hands and feet, and some even on their legs. Some clients were at immediate risk for hypothermia and needed to be sent to hospital.

When you have a frostbite injury, the treatment for frostbite is to rewarm it and prevent it from freezing - something that is incredibly difficult to do if you live without shelter. Notably, when a frosbite injury is rewarmed and then exposed to the cold again, further tissue damage occurs. 

On some of the coldest nights of the year all of the cities shelters have been at or over capacity. This means that if it weren't for cold alert services, which start at 10pm, people could be left outside to freeze.  

As it currently stands, public health has no data on the number of people who experience frostbite or hypothermia. We do not know how many canadians lose their limbs to frostbite every year. 

Dr Stephen Hwang, a coroner from toronto found 18 hypothermia deaths in the city of Toronto alone, between 2005-2015. He had to dig through emergency room and coroner reports to find the statistics for those deaths because they are not being reported anywhere. This discovery opened up an inquiry that led to the city opening up warming centres in Toronto.

What would happen then, if we were to report on the number of frosbite and hypothermia incidents that occur on a provinicial level, or even at a federal level? 

The Purpose: we demand that members of parliament pass legislature to consistently document and publish, the number of injuries and deaths that occur due to, or related to, frostbite and hypothermia in Ontario.