‘Fentanyl fold’ on city streets stresses prompt need for supervised consumption site: premier

Alarmed after seeing the “fentanyl fold” on city streets, Premier Wab Kinew promises a supervised drug consumption site will open this month — despite concerns essential staffers have yet to be hired.

In a sit-down interview with the Free Press Friday, the premier reinforced that the site — announced in the summer of 2024 — would be operational by the end of June.

“The urgency of the drug crisis is so visible in a way that everyone sees it,” Kinew said.

The province received approval from Health Canada for the Indigenous-led site, at 366 Henry Ave., in May.

A recent job posting by the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg, Inc., which will operate the facility, suggested key staffing positions were still being filled.

“The longer-term staffing and operation of the supervised consumption site might continue along its normal course while we take more immediate steps to respond to what everyone is seeing in our communities when it comes to these terrible drugs,” Kinew said.

After spending part of the week touring flood disaster areas outside the city, the premier returned to Winnipeg — where he witnessed a toxic drug disaster.

“Coming back from Swan River the other day, as we’re driving down Portage Avenue, I saw four people doing the ‘fentanyl fold’ as it’s called,” Kinew said, referring to a side effect of the opioid in which drug users appear to be slumped over and frozen in place.

“Even though we’ve seen progress on crime rates, we’ve seen progress on homelessness numbers, there’s a very visible humanitarian crisis,” Kinew said. “As a result, I think you’ll see us take actions like the supervised consumption site over the course of the summer in an urgent way.”

Consumption sites allow people to use illegal substances under the supervision of health workers who can immediately respond to overdoses if necessary. Such facilities test street drugs for toxicity and provide health and social supports.

The drug crisis and overdose calls are increasing the strain on emergency responders and community organizations and have overtaken alcohol-related emergencies, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service data have shown.

A decade ago, Winnipeg recorded 510 alcohol-related emergency incidents in May, compared with 17 involving opioids. Ten years later, opioid-related calls have climbed into the hundreds each month, surpassing alcohol-related calls in five of the past seven months.

Fire and paramedic crews were sent to 2,447 opioid-related incidents during the first five months of 2026, compared to 2,004 calls linked to alcohol use.

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Earlier this month, the province announced $802,000 for a three-month pilot project to deploy an around-the-clock, two-person paramedic team to respond to overdose calls in high-demand areas, including Winnipeg’s downtown core.

It will also spend $150,000 on approximately 20 oxygen delivery devices to be managed by Main Street Project and another $100,000 on first-aid and overdose response training delivered through St. John Ambulance and the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol 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.