Minister reassures Point Douglas safety top concern in rollout of supervised drug site

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The provincial addictions minister tried to calm fears the proposed supervised injection site in Point Douglas will ramp up crime in a community that has been besieged by crime, drug use and homelessness.

Ahead of a community forum to discuss the site, which would be the first in Manitoba if approved by Health Canada, Bernadette Smith said the government would work with the Downtown Community Safety Partnership and Winnipeg Police Service to keep the area safe. Details will be ironed out following community consultation, she told reporters, who were banned from the Thursday evening event.

“We want to hear from the community. This is a proposed site, so of course we want to hear feedback on what’s proposed,” the minister said.

Andrew Chan, who went to the meeting and is a member of Winnipeg Centre Vineyard church’s leadership team, said staff regularly clean up needles in the courtyard, at 782 Main St., before letting children play there.

“I support harm reduction, but we have to do it in a way such that it doesn’t affect all the other community members,” Chan said.

Stephanie Casar, a council member of Our Lady of Lourdes, a Roman Catholic church 400 metres from the proposed site, at 200 Disraeli Fwy., said earlier she planned to attend the forum to “listen and learn.”

Casar expressed concerns about the proposed site’s proximity to the Disraeli Overpass. Parishioners must already watch for people who sit in the middle of the street or don’t pay attention to traffic, she said.

Our Lady of Lourdes has erected a fence and hired security for social gatherings in response to crime in the area.

“We’re hoping that whatever happens in this neighbourhood, that it turns the corner for this neighbourhood,” said Casar, whose church has been in the community for 62 years.

Hours before the forum, Point Powerline Inc. issued a list of demands on behalf of Point Douglas residents.

The community-led crime prevention tipline demanded drug dealers who sell fatal doses be charged with manslaughter.

“We need to pull out all stops and attempt to save these lives,” said Sel Burrows, founder and co-ordinator of the tipline.

Burrows singled out stricter criminal charges and the creation of a task force to crack down on money laundering as key initiatives to deter criminals and improve safety in the inner city. He suggested seizures of the proceeds of laundering be redirected to “drug-dealing disruption and treatment programs.”

While he is keen to see the province open a designated space for people who use drugs to do so in the presence of health-care workers, he said the rollout needs to be complemented by extra funding for crime prevention.

The provincial government applied to open its first such facility on Nov. 21. Should Health Canada approve it, the province will run the site in partnership with the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg — the entity anticipated to oversee its day-to-day operations.

There were 323 suspected substance-related deaths in Manitoba during the first seven months of 2024.

Opioid-related 911 calls jumped 1,372 per cent between 2016 and 2023, per a new report from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.

Supervised consumption sites seek to prevent accidental overdoses and reduce needle-sharing and the subsequent spread of infectious diseases.

“Safety and security in and around the proposed supervised consumption site remains our top priority and we will only move ahead once we have a comprehensive safety plan in place,” Catherine Gates, deputy minister of housing, addictions and homelessness, wrote in a Jan. 23 memo to the Point Douglas Residents Association.

A local chapter of Action4Canada — a national group with a self-described mandate of “protecting faith, family and freedom” — had encouraged members to challenge the proposal.

“Don’t be fooled by the word ‘safe (in safe consumption site),’” states an excerpt of a Thursday email sent to members of the group.

The Winnipeg chapter indicated it wants government officials to focus on addictions treatments, providing health-care information to Manitobans, and giving referrals to community service providers.

The latter two items are generally central to supervised consumption site operations.

Health Canada reporting indicates there were no deaths at any existing site in the country — although there were 43,566 non-fatal overdoses — between March 2020 and August 2024. During that four-year period, there were nearly 62,800 referrals to offsite services.

Burrows, who’s spent the better part of the last quarter-century living in Point Douglas, said the proposed location is well-placed.

He said government officials have pledged crime-prevention tactics at 200 Disraeli Fwy. that include tapping Bear Clan Patrol to play a pivotal leadership role. At the same time, he argued there must be stricter consequences for illicit drug suppliers.

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He wants police to ramp up the seizure of small-scale dealers’ products and charge people who “cut” drugs with deadly substances with manslaughter to disrupt the wider business model.

Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said he welcomed the latest pitches from Burrows, whose calls for a machete ban inspired the NDP’s new long-bladed weapon restrictions.

“We’re looking for every opportunity that we can find to go after drug dealers and to keep these drugs out of our communities,” the attorney general said.

— With files from Gabrielle Piché

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie 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.