Province commits funds to regional health authorities for needle cleanup

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This article was published 25/11/2024 (344 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province is providing $30,000 to regional health authorities for needle cleanup plans.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith told the legislature Monday that the provincial government is not providing any more funding to rural harm-reduction activities until cleanup plans are in place

“As we help Manitobans in need, we also have a shared responsibility to ensure that our efforts to support people struggling with addictions also makes our community safer and healthier,” Smith told the house before question period.

“This is why we are requiring that regional health authorities develop comprehensive disposal and cleanup plans as a condition for provincial funding for harm-reduction activities,” said Smith, after reports of needles handed out for harm-reduction were littering rural communities such as Swan River.

“We are providing $30,000 in new funding to each rural health authority to help develop cleanup and safety plans so that our efforts to help people make healthier choices also keeps our communities healthy.”

The minister sent a letter Friday to the heads of Southern Health, Prairie Mountain Health, Interlake-Eastern Regional Health and the Northern Health Region “mandating that all regional health authorities develop comprehensive disposal and cleanup plans as a condition for provincial funding for harm-reduction activities.”

Funding, the letter said, “may be used to install disposal containers in public spaces, launch needle cleanup teams and facilitate safe disposal initiatives tailored to the needs of each region. Proper disposal plans will help stop the spread of infectious diseases, thereby reducing patient loads and hospital wait times and strengthen public safety.”

After question period, Smith told reporters that the health regions are all on board with the needle cleanup mandate, and that the former Tory government had no plan or policy in place for disposal and cleanup of needles being distributed in the communities.

Progressive Conservative housing, addictions and homelessness critic Carrie Hiebert said the move fails to address deeper issues.

“What about the individuals and our loved ones using those needles? We must demand that Manitobans struggling with addictions receive the treatment they need today. The addictions minister is ignoring the urgency of this crisis while leaving communities to continue cleaning up the mess of her inaction,” Hiebert said in a statement.

On Friday, Prairie Mountain Health announced that the Swan Valley Health Centre emergency department stopped handing out needles after the province said it was funding a new RCMP unit in the area to target violent and organized crime, including drug trafficking.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Disposal Plan