City crews cleaning up drug paraphernalia, weapons having some impact on inner-city life By: Malak Abas Posted: 5:49 PM CDT Monday, Aug. 17, 2026

There’s space for inner-city residents in every phase of life at the Freight House Recreation Centre at Isabel Street and Ross Avenue.

The long-standing facility hosts a daycare, a local faction of the Boys and Girls Club of Canada, a community centre and a bingo hall.

But the expansive park on the city property holds evidence of another lived experience: used needles, glass pipes, small baggies and other apparent drug paraphernalia.

A three-person crew, employed by the city as part of its recently expanded proactive cleanup program, allowed the Free Press to follow along last week while they worked to make the space safe to play in again.

Armed with thick, puncture-resistant gloves, sharps containers and hand-held trash pickers, they instinctively beeline to a small set of stairs leading into the Freight House building. Even though crews clean the site on an almost-daily basis, a quick sweep under the building using the picker reveals a small pile of used needles.

While they weren’t made available to do formal interviews, the three crew members speak candidly about what they see every day while they pick up garbage.

One lists tell-tale signs that a group has spent the night using drugs in a park: needles, junk-food wrappers, batteries, condoms and — she pauses, frowning — baby clothing, possibly left behind by someone carrying a child.

They describe the job as stressful at times — one said needles appear in her dreams sometimes — but incredibly rewarding, too. Community members using the park often thank the crew members for the work they do.

From April 13 to July 15, the most recent data available, downtown crews picked up 3,464 needles, 1,303 drug pipes and 95 weapons.

Those numbers are expected to jump after the program received additional funding last month.

City council quickly put forward and approved a plan to reallocate $206,250 of unspent 24-7 safe space funding to a five-month pilot project that expanded the program already in place until the end of the year.

Instead of the 16 parks targeted by the city when the program launched last year, there are now about 30 parks, along with bus shelters, back lanes and other areas marked for cleaning in and around the downtown core.

In the last few weeks, a second crew, brought in from other parks department duties, and an additional truck have been added.

“While receiving funding mid-season is great, there’s a challenge to reallocate staff towards it, reallocate equipment, if needed, towards it, so those are some of the things we’re still working through,” said Karl Thordarson, the city’s parks north superintendent.

“For us, the simplest thing was to add a second truck and a second group of folks, pull them off of other duties to respond to that call.”

In Central Park, the heart of the inner-city cleanup efforts, Thordarson flips through a stack of reports filed by staff over several weeks. Numbers of needles, pills, weapons — “generally, some sort of heavy bar,” Thordarson said — are marked down.

“Some days it’s a handful of needles, some days there’s suddenly a spike that they’ve found 30 or 40 needles here. Consistently, there’s also a dozen pipes or or more over the course of a week,” he said. “It can be kind of eye-opening.”

A decade ago, Thordarson said, cleanup crews would go into homeless camps, but the city now discourages direct interactions for safety reasons.

“Those situations we recognize over time are becoming less and less safe-feeling for our staff to enter into, and we’re not trained in de-escalation and all those kinds of things, so we’ve definitely taken a step back, and we don’t encourage them at all to enter into an encampment area,” he said.

“It’s definitely a shift in (the) sort of the approach that we’re taking. We’re more quietly just picking up the remnants of that behaviour.”

It’s too early to tell whether the just-opened supervised drug consumption site at 366 Henry Ave. will have any impact on the surrounding area, he said. Nearby Dufferin Park (605 Alexander Ave.) is on the list of cleanup spots.

The city has introduced a two-day “mental-health first aid” program for members of the cleanup crew that goes in depth on responding to people in crisis and offers tools for self-care.

“It is difficult for them, and they probably take some of it home with them,” Thordarson said. “It’s a little bit harder to compartmentalize it than it is (from) just cutting grass, right?”

The proactive needle cleanup program launched last year after child-care centres in the Central Park and University of Winnipeg area went to the city complaining about the lack of safe places for kids to play.

“It’s a little bit harder to compartmentalize it than it is (from) just cutting grass, right?”

Mayor Scott Gillingham said it may be possible to find additional funding to extend the program beyond the end of the year.

“We’ve heard clearly from residents and businesses that they want these spaces kept cleaner and safer, and council responded by expanding the cleanup program,” Gillingham said in a statement Monday.

“If the expanded cleanup program is working and the need continues, I’d be open to keeping it going or expanding it further.”

Lois Coward, executive director of Niigaanaki Day Care Centre Inc. on Balmoral Street, was one of the voices calling on the city to take action before the program was launched.

She said that daycare staff sometimes have to roll up their sleeves, too.

“If the expanded cleanup program is working and the need continues, I’d be open to keeping it going or expanding it further.”

“We use the parks in the morning and the crews come later in the day, so we decide if we can clean up or try another park,” she said in a text message.

“In short, we have not seen much change from spring to now. Mondays are the worst for garbage, drug paraphernalia and clothing.”

Area Coun. Cindy Gilroy has long pushed for a park cleanup program. While she was happy it received more funding for this year, it doesn’t come close to meeting the need in the ward, she said.

She’d like to see a separate, enhanced cleanliness strategy focused on the inner city.

“We know the stats show that people feel unsafe when there’s litter about the streets and there’s garbage, and things need to be pressure-washed and cleaned off,” Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) said.

“This is good that we’re we’re adding more money to it, but in these areas that are really struggling and have a lot more homelessness, addiction and mental health (issues), there needs to be a plan of action for them.”

Wilmalee Pruden, 67, was taking a quick break from work to soak in some sunlight after the cleanup crew left Central Park.

Pruden works in the area and said she had stopped visiting the park because of scattered needles and other garbage. Now, she makes a point to thank the cleanup crews when she sees them for the significant impact they’ve had on the area.

“I stayed away, but now I’m coming back every day… I come on my lunch break, just for coffee, just to walk, talk to the pigeons, even,” she said.

“I’m a nature person, so it gives me comfort to come and see how beautiful it is here. I’ve noticed the difference.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca