Groups call for emergency declaration as OD deaths soar

Front-line workers want the provincial government to declare a public health emergency after they say there’s been a surge in overdose deaths this spring.

At least five people have died of drug toxicity in the past two weeks, said Resource Assistance for Youth Inc., an inner-city organization.

Main Street Project reported Wednesday that 10 people connected to their organization have died in the same time period.

“This is the worst spring I’ve ever seen in my time, my work, in terms of the number of overdoses that we’re reversing,” MSP executive director Jamil Mahmood said.

While he acknowledged the complexity of declaring a public health emergency, he said the situation is unacceptable, with roughly 30 deaths per month.

“I can’t think of any other situation where we would not call a public health emergency when 30 people per month are dying.”

He said there should be more drug checking, longer hours for Sunshine House’s mobile overdose prevention vehicle, clearer public communication and progress on opening the supervised consumption site. He pointed to a successful pilot last summer that stationed paramedics at shelters, which eased pressure on ambulance services.

Cynthia Drebot, executive director of the North End Women’s Centre, echoed Mahmood’s call for provincial action and emphasized that people with addiction must be viewed as human beings.

“This has been going on for five years at this intensity,” she said, adding they dealt with four overdoses alone on Monday. They were able to save each person.

She said the centre’s OD-prevention work has expanded beyond its Selkirk Avenue location. Local businesses have asked for training and naloxone kits, while the growing crisis is stretching resources.

“We’re all bracing for more, and we already feel we’re at our stretched point,” she said.

Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith said the province is monitoring the situation.

“It’s concerning to us when we’re seeing high numbers,” Smith said, adding she recently spoke with MSP and the province is looking at interim supports, including purchasing oxygen machines for outreach teams.

She noted the chief public health officer makes the call to declare a public health emergency.

She said the province is working with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service on real-time data and exploring additional support for outreach staff.

“They’re not hired to do this kind of work,” Smith said.

Kate Sjoberg, executive director of RaY, said the loss has been “tremendous.”

“Outreach organizations are always serving people that have already experienced tremendous trauma in their lives,” she said Wednesday. “They’re often remembering other folks that they’ve lost to drug toxicity. So there’s that cumulative load of grief and loss.”

Mahmood said he could not confirm whether MSP’s figures overlap with RaY’s reported deaths, but noted the 10 deaths were connected to MSP in some way — through outreach, shelter use or proximity to its Main Street buildings.

“It’s definitely a very challenging time,” he said, noting the Easter long weekend averaged six overdoses per day.

The front-line organizers want the proposed supervised consumption site, scheduled for 366 Henry Ave., to open.

“Our teams are taking care of people who … would be visiting the safer consumption site,” Drebot said.

Smith did not provide a timeline for the site to open, other than to say an announcement will be made “very soon.”

The uptick in overdoses can be attributed to an increase in drugs being cut with medetomidine, a veterinarian tranquilizer that can cause prolonged sedation and dangerously low heart rates.

Street Connections issued a public health alert about the drug in February.

“When it first came through, we were really alarmed at the different presentation that people were having who were experiencing, like a dangerous event, and it’s taken time to adjust,” Sjoberg said. “(The persons overdosing) were breathing, they had a pulse, so their vital signs were strong, but they could not wake up.”

At the time of the alert, drug testing showed concerning concentrations of medetomidine — 3.19 per cent, 3.56 per cent and 5.50 per cent in recent samples.

Sunshine House’s mobile unit is a place where people can inject or snort drugs, or smoke drugs by using an inhalation tent. It also provides harm-reduction supplies and naloxone.

The non-profit released a statement Wednesday that said medetomidine is often mixed with potent opioids in drugs such as “down,” and has strained front-line resources and increased reliance on paramedics.

While harm-reduction efforts have helped, supply disruptions have led to more unpredictable and potent drugs. They say a supervised consumption site would improve safety because many people who use drugs in public are often rushed and at higher risk of overdose. It means community workers must perform lifesaving interventions in unsafe, informal settings.

“A bricks-and-mortar (supervised consumption site) where people could use drugs under the supervision of professionals, and get those drugs tested beforehand, would keep people safer,” the statement said.

Naloxone does not counteract medetomidine’s effects, which can last for hours. However, because the drug is often mixed with fentanyl, naloxone is still administered to reverse an opioid overdose.

Mahmood said staff sometimes administer up to eight doses of naloxone, along with oxygen, to keep people breathing until they can receive medical attention.

“It’s definitely become harder to respond,” he said.

In its latest report, provincial data show a decline in substance-related deaths last year. The province reported 354 deaths from January to November 2025, down from the 530 in the same period in 2024.

Mahmood said the decrease is encouraging, but does not reflect the scope of the crisis.

He noted that more people carry naloxone, which has helped to prevent deaths even as overdoses increase.

“We’re seeing increases in overdoses, we’re just able to keep people alive,” he said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca