Much rides on safe consumption site for Kinew

Opinion

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This article was published 23/07/2024 (410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is the riskiest political decision of Wab Kinew’s short political career and, if things go wrong, it could cost him his job as premier. Ironically, Pierre Poilievre may save him from that fate.

Two weeks ago, the Manitoba government announced it is proceeding with its plan to open the province’s first supervised drug consumption site located in or near downtown Winnipeg. Days later, the government disclosed it is providing $727,000 to “support the development of an Indigenous-led supervised consumption site in Winnipeg in partnership with the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg.”

When the first announcement was made, Premier Kinew told the media that “We’ve looked at other jurisdictions. It is clear that there will be an impact when you open a supervised consumption site in terms of the next few blocks around it … so we need to select the location with that in mind. That means it probably can’t go near a school or a daycare.

“Are there other areas where maybe we could put a community plan around (it) with foot patrol and collaboration with law enforcement?” he asked.

That’s an important question. Far too many Manitobans die of drug overdoses each year, and there is overwhelming evidence that supervised consumption sites reduce the risk of such deaths occurring. The challenge for government is identifying a location for the facility that will not cause collateral damage and disruption to the surrounding area — a problem Kinew acknowledges is likely to occur in Winnipeg.

He has ample reason to be concerned. There was a 276 per cent increase in drug-related calls to police in the area surrounding the Safeworks supervised consumption site in Calgary after that facility opened, along with a 29 per cent rise in the overall number of calls for police service.

With that troubling reality in mind, the political risk of proceeding with a supervised consumption site becomes clearer. The opening of such a facility will save lives, but it is unlikely to increase the number of votes for NDP candidates in the next provincial election. Rather, it has considerable potential to cost the party support.

If the area around the Winnipeg facility experiences the same range of problems as occurred in the area around the Safeworks facility in Calgary — and there is a strong possibility it might — Kinew and his NDP colleagues will shoulder the bulk of the blame from Winnipeggers.

That’s a problem the NDP can’t afford. The opposition Progressive Conservatives came within a total of only 3,131 votes (spread over just seven ridings) from winning a majority government in last fall’s election. That small margin means Kinew is putting his government’s re-election hopes on the line by supporting such a facility.

Ironically, a Conservative could be about to reduce that risk considerably.

Ten days ago, Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre told supporters that supervised consumption sites are “drug dens” that a future Tory government would seek to close and not provide with “a single taxpayer dollar.” More specifically, he said he would close all locations near schools, playgrounds and “anywhere else that they endanger the public.”

Given that (1) the Tories are a virtual lock to win the next federal election and (2) supervised consumption sites require an exemption from the federal government under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in order to operate, Poilievre’s threat has the potential to kill Winnipeg’s planned facility.

If that happens, it would result in a terrible medical and social outcome, but it could be viewed as a favourable political outcome for the Kinew government.

It would enable Kinew and his NDP colleagues to credibly claim they tried their best to make a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg a reality, but that the federal government is to blame for preventing that from happening. It would also eliminate the risk of losing votes because of additional crime and disruption in the area around the facility.

In this very unusual political situation, some may regard that as a win for the NDP.

Deveryn Ross is a political commentator living in Brandon.

deverynrossletters@gmail.com X: @deverynross