Supervised drug site not on agenda for 2024: premier

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/04/2024 (552 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP government won’t open a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg this year, Premier Wab Kinew said Tuesday, as he argued the province needs time to get it right.

Instead, the province has allocated $2 million in the 2024 budget for consultations with community groups about where to put the site, expected to be downtown, in the general area of north Main Street. An operational plan is expected next year.

The budget states the eventual site will provide sterile consumption equipment and offer supervision “to reduce infection, save lives and connect Manitobans with health care, mental-health supports and wraparound services.”

Kinew said establishing a supervised consumption site is a “big step” and the province needs to take time to get it right.

“How do you ensure that the impacts on public safety and on the immediate neighbourhood are going to be addressed?” he said, noting the province has consulted with other premiers and experts.

Advocates called it a good step forward.

“I am very encouraged by what I heard today,” said Arlene Last-Kolb, Manitoba regional director of Moms Stop the Harm, a group of parents who have lost children to drug overdoses. “We are talking more about harm reduction than we ever have in the past.”

Still, Last-Kolb said what’s missing from the province’s budget is a commitment to safe supply — programs in which people with addictions are prescribed pharmaceutical medication as a harm reduction approach to the drug crisis.

“The toxic drug supply does not discriminate,” she said, noting that not everyone who uses drugs will go to a supervised consumption site. Many use substances in their own homes.

“I will never stop talking safe supply… I hope that (the province) will be brave and show leadership.”

Asked about a possible safer drug supply program Tuesday, Kinew said the province is taking things one step at a time and will follow data and results once the supervised site is open.

The establishment of such a site, where people can use their own substances under the supervision of those trained to revive them if they overdose, would be Manitoba’s first.

Using illicit substances “shouldn’t be a death sentence,” Kinew said. He characterized the sites as “a path toward” primary care, addictions medicine and a better life.

The former Progressive Conservative government resisted calls from harm-reduction advocates and drug users, who said such sites save lives. Deaths due to toxic drug overdoses in Manitoba have soared in recent years. In 2022, a total of 467 people died from drug overdoses and preliminary numbers for 2023 — which are expected to rise — show 445 people died from overdoses.

Jason Whitford, CEO of End Homelessness Winnipeg, said the creation of a safe consumption site is “long overdue.”

“Losing nearly 500 lives just this past year to the toxic drug supply is just alarming. That’s a crisis,” Whitford said.

Interim Tory Leader Wayne Ewasko defended his party’s refusal to create a supervised consumption site when in power.

“We stand by recovery first,” Ewasko told reporters. “We pushed for safety.”

All provinces west of Atlantic Canada have supervised consumption sites.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Head Start

Weekday Mornings

A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day.

Sign up for Head Start

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The government is considering a proposal from an Indigenous-led consortium on the creation of a site, Kinew said.

He also spoke about the need to crack down on traffickers who provide illicit substances people would use at the sites.

Tuesday’s budget includes $2.4 million for drug testing, treatment and recovery programs.

Of this, $435,000 will go toward drug testing in Winnipeg and northern Manitoba, $1.5 million will be directed to treatment supports — including withdrawal management and supportive recovery housing programs — and $500,000 will fund 24/7 sobering centres in Brandon and Thompson.

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca

Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter

Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. She has worked at newspapers across Canada, including the National Post and the Toronto Star. She joined the Free Press in 2022. Read more about Katrina.

Every piece of reporting Katrina 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.