If elected, NDP vows to fund meth detox centre

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This article was published 30/07/2019 (2646 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chastising the Pallister government for not doing more to address the meth crisis, NDP Leader Wab Kinew said if his party forms government, he will quickly fund a Main Street Project (MSP) plan to create detoxification, treatment and transitional housing beds for those struggling with addictions.

MSP requires $1.5 million in provincial capital funding to leverage millions of federal dollars to help transform the old Mitchell Fabrics building on Main Street into a usable space for its clients.

MSP is also looking at beefing up medical and counselling staff to better deal with addictions.

Its proposal, which was submitted to the provincial government in February 2018, also includes a request for $2 million in operating funding to support the equivalent of 17.8 full-time positions.

Kinew criticized the Progressive Conservative government for failing to adequately address addictions and mental health issues.

“We know that the addictions crisis in Manitoba is huge, and we know that we need to act urgently,” Kinew said at a news conference, surrounded by election candidates and supporters, at MSP’s administrative building on Main Street on Tuesday.

“Essentially, what we’re proposing with this plan is to locate more mental health and addictions supports here at Main Street Project so that we don’t have to burden the (hospital) emergency rooms,” he said.

Considerable police time could also be saved if there were more resources provided for addictions and mental health, he said, noting recent pleas by Mayor Brian Bowman and police Chief Danny Smyth and others for more provincial action in these areas.

However, a spokesman for the Progressive Conservative party said late Tuesday that the government last week approved the addition of 120 beds for the Main Street Project’s shelter. He said that commitment will help MSP leverage the federal money for its capital expansion project.

The PC spokesman did not have detailed information about the Pallister government bed commitment, referring a reporter to MSP executive director Rick Lees, who couldn’t immediately be reached.

The spokesman said the government has invested “significant new resources” to address the meth problem, including the opening up of five Rapid Access to Addictions Medicine clinics, six new treatment beds at Health Sciences Centre, three dozen new women’s treatment beds at the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba’s Portage Avenue site and four more at the Behavioural Health Foundation.

“We will also be opening long-term withdrawal beds, suitable for treating patients with a meth addiction, in Winnipeg and Brandon in the next few weeks,” he said.

Tahl East, director of detoxification and stabilization with Main Street Project, said earlier that 70 per cent of women and 50-60 per cent of men who enter her program are addicted to meth.

“We’re not seeing the significant aggression issues that are being seen elsewhere, I think, mostly because we make connections with people,” she said of MSP’s meth clients.

“Connections are important to recovery.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca