First week at supervised drug consumption site issue-free: premier

There were no issues to report after the first week of operations for Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site, Premier Wab Kinew said Tuesday.

The Winnipeg space, operating temporarily out of the fenced-off parking lot at 366 Henry Ave. while the adjacent building, which is to become the permanent site, undergoes renovations, opened Aug. 11.

Opening the long-awaited supervised consumption facility was a 2023 NDP election promise to keep people alive in the midst of a toxic street-drug crisis.

Kinew said the facility, which is being run by the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre for the province, had quietly served at least 125 clients as of earlier in the week.

“My hope is that — for all of the media attention and controversy and whatever that people have tried to kick up around this — now that it’s open, it just fades into the background and becomes another part of our health-care system where people with severe, problematic substance-use issues can just go and get their health-care needs attended to,” he said.

The media attention and widespread opposition required the province to establish a site that works, the premier said at an unrelated event.

“Controversy doesn’t help the delivery of health care but maybe, in this case, it’s made us be very thorough about designing a new aspect for accessing primary care and addictions medicine in Manitoba,” he said.