Kinew threatens to extend legislative session over detox bill

Premier Wab Kinew said he would extend the legislative session “as long as it takes” to pass a bill that would allow intoxicated people to be detained for up to 72 hours.

Kinew railed against the Tories Monday for refusing to vote on Bill 48 — the Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act — until their proposed amendments to it are debated.

The premier accused the Tories of allowing meth users in psychosis to “run rampant.”

“This is a common-sense piece of legislation everyone agrees on,” Kinew said in the chamber.

The last sitting day of the session is scheduled for Thursday, followed by a recess for Remembrance Day week. Members would return to the chamber for a new session and throne speech on Nov. 18.

Kinew said he won’t sign an order to end the session and, instead, prorogue the legislature if the bill doesn’t go before the house for a vote by Thursday. In that case, members would return to the house on Nov. 18 and the session will continue, he said.

“We will give them plenty of time in the weeks to come to join us in supporting Bill 48,” Kinew said.

The bill would replace the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act, which allows for the 24-hour involuntary detention of people intoxicated by alcohol.

The change aims to allow those in the throes of methamphetamine psychosis, and other longer-lasting drugs, to be detained for up to 72 hours.

The PCs have pushed for amendments to the bill and won’t agree to a vote on the legislation until all three of their proposed changes are debated in the house, opposition house leader Derek Johnson said Monday.

Their amendments include prohibiting a 72-hour detention site protective care centre from being located within 500 metres of a school, child-care centre, personal-care home, playground, park or community centre.

The PCs also want the act to include data collection and reporting. The government would have to publish reports within 60 days of the start of the calendar year saying how many people were detained the previous year, how many were detained more than once, the sex, age and gender of those detained, the type of programs and services offered to them upon release and how many were allowed to stay longer in protective care to receive additional care or services.

Government house leader Nahanni Fontaine said she tried Monday morning to negotiate with the opposition house leader to get the bill passed.

“I thought it was a good compromise and they outright rejected it,” Fontaine told reporters after question period. She agreed to one of their amendments to the bill — to require data collection and reporting on 72-hour detainees — if the PCs agreed to put the legislation to a vote.

“They chose not to,” Fontaine said. “It’s clear that this is all political theatre.”

Johnson said the government could have brought the bill forward much sooner and guaranteed its passage before the session ends. He said there is still a lot of unfinished business that members have to debate — including another budget bill expected to be introduced Tuesday and 40 hours worth of questions about spending estimates that the government needs to answer.

“We have a lot of business to cover yet. The failing government has not called a lot of business,” Johnson said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca