Councillors expand downtown cleanup of drug-related items, weapons By: Joyanne Pursaga Posted: 5:08 PM CDT Thursday, Jul. 16, 2026

City hall wasted no time Thursday expanding the seasonal cleanup of drug needles and other hazardous material from select downtown parks to include many other public spaces, at least until the end of this year.

On Thursday, council quickly introduced, and approved, a plan to devote $206,250 of unspent 24-7 safe space funding to implement a five-month pilot project that expands proactive needle and weapon cleanup.

The funding extends that work to more city parks, as well as some transit shelters, sidewalks, riverbank walkways, skywalks, plazas, boulevards, library grounds, community centre fields, and other public spaces, clearing away drug, encampment and biohazard debris.

“We need to make sure that public spaces are available to the public. Families should not have to be concerned (about) needles in their parks and the playgrounds for their kids. People waiting for buses shouldn’t have to put up with the debris of needles … or meth pipes laying in a bus shelter,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham. “We’re reallocating some resources that are not being used currently and putting them to good use for the sake of the people of Winnipeg.”

The mayor said exact locations to be cleaned up have not been identified, though at least some sites will likely be selected in response to complaints from the public and city councillors.

Gillingham said the program will begin “immediately” and last until about the end of the year.

In 2025, the city cleaned up hazardous debris from 16 sites through its existing program.

Workers removed 6,358 needles, 177 weapons, 659 bags with remnants of drugs and 1,293 pipes, along with other drug-related items, between April 14 and Oct. 3.

That previously approved program is slated to continue on a seasonal basis until 2028, running from about April to October each year.

The efforts follow complaints from families and daycare operators who struggle to find safe spaces for children to play downtown.

Money used to expand the cleanup effort was previously approved for a 24-7 safe space at N’Dinawemak on Disraeli Freeway. It was not spent after the province converted that building into a navigation centre that helps connect homeless people with services and housing.

Downtown resident Bichar Hamid, who recently moved to the area, said he used the Assiniboine Avenue river pathway, which connects the legislature to The Forks, for the first time this week.

“I would just say, first of all, why are there so many needles on the friggin’ ground?”

He supports city hall’s decision to expand needle and drug paraphernalia cleanup.

“First of all, why are there so many needles on the friggin’ ground?”

“There’s lots of kids who play around. They might, step over one and they might get a cut. They might get something and then they’re stuck with something for the rest of their life, and it’s just simply because we didn’t do a good job of cleaning up the neighbourhood.”

City council’s Thursday vote also directs staff to expand monthly reports on Winnipeg’s encampment ban in many public places to also include “point in time” encampment numbers, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service overdose call data and more.

Gillingham said that data can help determine how effective city programs are in addressing homelessness, addictions and dangerous debris.

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) said the new public safety motion is a good “first step” in dealing with a drug and public safety crisis.

“What we need to do next is have a very serious conversation … with every frontline (organization) on public safety … That next step is the fourth (emergency) service,” said Rollins.

The mayor has promised to design a fourth emergency response branch to handle mental health calls.

On Thursday, Gillingham said he does not directly connect the two public safety initiatives. He said details about that mental health response will be revealed in short order.

“You’re going to hear soon about the community crisis response proposal that we’ve been working on … in the coming weeks,” said Gillingham.

A report on the five-month public space cleanup project is expected in January 2027.

— with files from Morgan Modjeski

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

X: @joyanne_pursaga

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne 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.