Time for action now as Manitobans with addictions continue to suffer

The numbers in Manitoba’s latest auditor general’s report aren’t just statistics — they are a mirror reflecting a government that’s falling dangerously short in protecting some of the most vulnerable people in the province.

Only 20 per cent of the auditor general’s 15 recommendations to improve access to addictions services have been implemented three years after they were made. The remaining 12 are still “a work in progress.”

For a government that came into office promising urgency and compassion when it comes to addressing the addictions crisis, “work in progress” doesn’t cut it, especially not when Manitobans are dying every week from overdoses and toxic drugs.

Auditor General Tyson Shtykalo’s report, released last week, lays out what every front-line worker, every family that’s lost someone, and every person waiting for treatment already knows: Manitoba’s system to treat addictions is a patchwork of underfunded and understaffed services that allows too many people to fall through the cracks.

Manitoba reported a record 570 drug-related deaths in 2024, up from 445 the previous year and 418 in 2022.

And yet, despite three years of warnings from the auditor general and a mounting death toll, the system is still missing basic wait-time reporting, clear treatment standards, and adequate staffing. There’s still no transparent or publicly available data on service demand or treatment capacity, even though Shared Health has supposedly collected it.

The government has yet to address the chronic shortage of residential treatment beds and community counselling options that so many people need once they decide they’re ready to get help. For those trying to recover, the options are slim, the waits are long, and the support systems are fragile.

Governments love to talk about complex problems and long-term strategies, but this isn’t a problem that needs more studies or another round of consultations. It needs immediate investment and leadership.

The auditor general’s report should also remind us that addictions policy should not be based on ideology. Yet, that’s exactly what’s been happening for years in Manitoba.

The Progressive Conservative opposition continues to push the erroneous narrative that supervised drug consumption sites are somehow at odds with treatment and recovery, as if saving lives and helping people get better are mutually exclusive goals. It’s a false dichotomy.

Supervised consumption sites are not about keeping people addicted, as some claim. They are about keeping people alive long enough to access treatment. They are a public health measure, one proven in cities across Canada to prevent overdoses, save health-care costs, and connect people with supports they would otherwise never encounter.

The problem isn’t that Manitoba is funding a supervised consumption site (which has still yet to open), it’s that the province isn’t doing nearly enough to fund both harm reduction and treatment. Pretending the two are at odds is a dangerous political game when the stakes are measured in human lives.

By failing to fully implement the auditor general’s recommendations, the NDP is leaving itself open to criticism from those who oppose supervised consumption sites altogether. When the public sees treatment centres underfunded and detox beds unavailable, it becomes easier for critics to argue that money spent on harm reduction should’ve gone elsewhere.

The province should be expanding treatment and prevention alongside harm reduction, not in place of it.

The province’s announcement of 1,200 new treatment spaces is encouraging on paper, but the real question is how soon Manitobans will see those spaces open, where they’ll be located, and whether they’ll be properly staffed.

Promises don’t save lives. Action does. And until the system has enough spaces, workers, and publicly available performance standards, Manitobans will continue to suffer needlessly.

Behind every “work in progress” are Manitobans whose lives hang in the balance, people who are desperate for help but can’t find it, families terrified of that 2 a.m. phone call no one ever wants to get.

You can’t fight addiction with half measures. You can’t manage a public health crisis with quarterly updates and email statements that blame your predecessors.

The province’s addiction response system is running on fumes, and the people on the front lines — the counsellors, the nurses, the outreach workers — know it better than anyone.

As the crisis deepens, the gap between what Manitobans need and what the government is delivering is growing wider by the day.

Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith has said the government “takes the recommendations seriously.” That’s fine, but taking them seriously isn’t the same as acting on them.

Leadership in a crisis means showing urgency, transparency, and courage — three things that have been in short supply so far.

If the government wants to own the moral high ground on this issue, it must fully implement every single one of the auditor general’s recommendations and make the data public. Manitobans deserve to know where the gaps are, how many people are waiting for treatment, and how the system is performing.

Until that happens, every overdose death, every family grieving, every person still waiting for help will be a reminder of what “work in progress” really means.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca