Province denies minors could access drug site as facility’s intake forms become public

The NDP was on the hot seat Monday over proposed intake forms for a supervised consumption site that ask if visitors are pregnant, youths or first-time drug users.

“This premier thinks it’s OK for 16-year-old youths to enter drug consumption sites,” Progressive Conservative leader Obby Khan said during question period.

The harm reduction facility, set to open in weeks at 366 Henry Ave. will be managed by the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre.

The PCs said users will not be required to provide identification or a Manitoba health card. The centre’s protocol says those between 16 and 18 years of age will only be allowed to access the supervised consumption site if they show obvious signs of physical addiction to illicit narcotics.

The centre will adhere to a strict confidentiality policy, and does not provide information about participants — even to family members — unless the participant has explicitly consented, the protocol obtained by the PCs said.

“Nobody should be using drugs and nobody should be using drugs as a wedge issue for partisan gain,” Premier Wab Kinew said when pressed during question period.

Outside the chamber, Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said minors won’t be able to access the facility, which is expected to open as a mobile clinic outside the former warehouse the province is converting into a permanent site and medical clinic.

“There will be a check-in process. People will have to present themselves, they will have to verify who they are when they come in with the staff member. If minors do come there, they will be referred to different resources because that’s obviously not the appropriate resource,” said Smith, pointing to Resource Assistance for Youth as an example of where they’d be directed. The non-profit is a Winnipeg-based agency that supports people under 30 experiencing homelessness, poverty, or crisis.

“If minors do come there, they will be referred to different resources because that’s obviously not the appropriate resource.”

The Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre has more than 30 years of experience working in that community, Smith said.

“It’s a health-led model and we have full confidence in the work that they’re going to be doing,” she said. “It’s about connecting people with services.”

The centre’s executive director did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

The minister said the intake checklist asks people if they require rapid access to addictions medicine, primary health care, housing and other supports.

“Those are all the things that we want to connect people to, we want to stabilize people, get them onto a path of recovery,” Smith said.

“We don’t want anybody doing drugs. But we also want to make sure that we are connecting people to services and we know that people are doing drugs. When we hear the PCs fear-mongering and talking about children doing drugs, we need to really ask the Conservatives ‘Should we be making sure that we are connecting people to services?’”

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Khan disputed the Tories were engaging in scare tactics.

“Nothing we’re saying is fear-mongering,” Khan told reporters after question period. “Nothing we’re saying is divisive. We are trying to send a message love, compassion, support, recovery. We need to help people out of this cycle of addiction, not provide a space to continue to consume drugs.”

The PC leader said the centre would be surrounded by drug dealers and others trying to take advantage of others.

“This is a recipe for disaster, for a collapse of a city — of a generation. This is wrong. We want recovery, health, love, compassion. Anybody that knows anybody on drugs or alcohol, we want to help them.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

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Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.