Supervised consumption site advocates in Winnipeg optimistic about NDP's commitment

Harm reduction advocates in Winnipeg say they're encouraged by the new Manitoba government's commitment to setting up a supervised consumption site in the city.

Past efforts to set up services like a supervised consumption site found little appetite among the outgoing Progressive Conservatives. 

After Wab Kinew introduced his New Democratic Party cabinet at a swearing-in ceremony Wednesday morning, he stressed that fixing health care remains his government's top priority. Following the ceremony, new Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith reiterated the New Democratic Party's support for a supervised consumption site.

"We can't give you any timeline on that certainly, but certainly we're committed to opening one up," Smith told reporters.

"We saw over 400 deaths last year and we don't want to see those rise."

While Manitoba has no permanent supervised consumption site, agencies providing services to drug users have had to adapt their spaces to prevent overdose deaths.

At Nine Circles Community Health Centre on Broadway, a red light above the door to the bathroom in the lobby has been set to a timer, which lets staff know when someone has been in there too long and might need help.

People are "not allowed to use drugs on our site, as it is with anybody else I suppose, but we recognize that might happen," said Kim Bailey, director of prevention testing and wellness at the centre.

Bailey says informal arrangements like this are no substitute for a supervised consumption site.

A report published by the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network in 2019 indicated drug users and health workers in Winnipeg favoured the idea of a supervised consumption site, but the idea got a cold reception from past provincial leaders. Former premier Brian Pallister dropped a copy of the report on the floor of the legislature when he received it in April 2019.

Sunshine House has operated the city's only official overdose prevention site — a mobile service using a recreational vehicle.

The service has staff trained to recognize and respond to overdoses, reducing the risk of death. They also provide harm reduction supplies such as clean needles and the overdose reversal medication naloxone.

Smith mentioned Sunshine House, as well as the homeless outreach agency Main Street Project, as groups the new Manitoba government planned to work with.

Main Street Project executive director Jamil Mahmood says the change in government has renewed optimism among those working with the city's most marginalized.

"The spirits are up," he said.

"I know that across the sector everyone's very excited about this. We know it's not going to be everything happening right away, quick solutions."

Unanswered questions regarding a potential supervised consumption site include possible locations, as well as who should take charge of the operation.

Main Street Project has pitched itself as location, but Mahmood said involving members of the Indigenous community will be key.

So far, the new government has only committed to opening one site, but both Mahmood and Bailey say more may be needed.

"There's pockets of of folks using drugs in all various neighbourhoods. So having the opportunity for people in all neighbourhoods to have access to a program like that is really, really important," she said.