Supervised drug consumption site organizers try to turn down the heat Organizers address concerns over proposed Disraeli Fwy spot By: Malak Abas Posted: 6:30 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024

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The organizers of Canada’s first Indigenous-led supervised consumption site say the planned space will have “relationship-building” security, the capacity to treat hundreds of people a day and a constant cycle of community input.

The Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg held an informational meeting Thursday after news broke of the site’s proposed location at 200 Disraeli Fwy., just east of Main Street, in hopes of responding to some concerns from critics, who have suggested the space would make the surrounding area — including an alternative high school and child-care centres — less safe, and called out the province for moving forward on the plan without completing a full community consultation.

Charlene Hallett, AHWC’s supervised consumption site cultural and health integration lead, said if the site receives federal approval and plans move forward, the facility will employ community wellness workers who will act as greeters, clean up any discarded needles or other paraphernalia on the outskirts of the building and “keep the peace.”

There will be security inside the building, but ideally, police presence will be kept to a minimum in hopes of encouraging people to use the space.

“We want people to come in,” Hallett said.

“The more police you have outside in a very visible way could possibly decrease the amount of participants who want to come inside. And what we know from working here for 30 years with our constituents and having security at the door is, hugely, it’s about how you build relationships to begin with.”

Community spaces, including their own, already use this model of security in the Point Douglas area, Hallett said, and it is built to focus on the people most likely to experience violence in the area, who are usually homeless and otherwise vulnerable.

“So many people talk about safety, we agree, but I very rarely hear in those conversations safety about our constituents, safety about our relatives on the street, because they are actually more likely to experience violence perpetrated on them than someone who doesn’t live on the street,” she said.

There are ongoing discussions relating to capacity; as it stands, the facility could see up to 223 people each day. The space will also include an expanded version of AHWC’s drop-in Rapid Access to Addictions Medicine, used by more than 2,000 people last year.

Housing the clinic and the supervised consumption site in the same building will allow people who are ready to receive treatment for substance use to move directly from one space to the other, Hallett said.

“The misconception is that there was no discussions with us…. That’s not true.”–Monica Cyr

“We want to be able to just literally walk them up, rather than say, ‘Well, maybe we’ll call and maybe you can get in’ — let’s just go,” she said.

The intention is for the facility to include a mental-health team, a primary-care clinic and people on staff to provide support with basic needs, including housing.

Monica Cyr, AHWC’s senior director of clinical operations, said “misconceptions” around what the site will look like have influenced discussions around safety and the government’s consultation process.

Cyr said the proposed location was selected after months of consultations with a “community cohort” of organizations, a group of elders and a peer-advisory council of more than a dozen people who either use substances or have lived experience with substance use and live in the surrounding area.

“I think that’s the misconception is that there was no discussions with us, and that there’s going to be no discussions with us. That’s not true. That’s not true, at least not from AHWC’s perspective,” Cyr said.

“But we can’t engage the downtown Point Douglas (entire area) within 30 days. We can’t do that. Nobody can do that.”

Several groups, including the Manitoba Métis Federation, told the Free Press Tuesday they were not consulted on the proposed location. Progressive Conservative housing critic MLA Carrie Hiebert said she has heard from neighbours who say they were left out of the process.

Cyr said day-care centres and Argyle Alternative High School — a low-enrolment Grades 10-12 school with flexible courses and specialty programs aimed at preparing students for work or post-secondary education — were consulted. This time last year, the school located at 30 Argyle St. had about 150 registrants.

The majority of students self-identify as Indigenous — 66 per cent, per the latest public demographic report, and the school provides opportunities for youth and young adults to participate in First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultural activities, alongside academic lessons.

Jordan Bighorn, executive director of the Community Education Development Association, said the location can have a positive effect on the area.

“If it means that the community at large will find better health, if it means it embraces neighbours who are suffering with this addiction.”

There are no Argyle students who are currently active participants in CEDA’s academic enrichment programs, but young adults have accessed the organization’s after-school programs in previous school years.

“When I think of a drug den, I do not think of a clean, clinical space with nurses, with other support services around.”–Charlene Hallett

For Bighorn, the school’s location could prove to be symbolic. A glance across the street may lead people accessing the supervised consumption site – which he said will, essentially, replace an unsupervised one — to think about their relationship with the education system and how they can enhance their skills and find employment.

“It’s finally nice to have some of that tangible turnaround on these longstanding issues that community bears the brunt of, both in life as they’re living, but in death as well, because it happens so often and there’s such grief and compounded grief,” he said.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he would close all supervised drug consumption sites near schools if he becomes prime minister and has referred to them as “drug dens.”

Hallett said the potential of a Poilievre-led government isn’t having an impact on AHWC’s work at the moment, but suggested that politicians at every level were contributing to the misinformation that has raised the temperature of the conversation about the province’s first supervised consumption site.

“When I think of a drug den, I do not think of a clean, clinical space with nurses, with other support services around, with access to showers and access to digital equity and access to all the other supports that will be there,” she said.

“I wish that all politicians, truthfully, would speak to it more in the health way that it is, and in the health crisis that it is, rather than simply trying to politicize it for points.

“It’s so unfortunate because people are dying, and you’re misinforming the Canadian citizens of what is actually the issue here.”

— With files from Maggie Macintosh

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca