GOLD: Free needles, how many? The City of Winnipeg is hiding the facts

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It took five years and a near-revolt by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities to get the provincial government to admit that “harm reduction” ain’t a one-way street.

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Both Swan River and Swan Valley engaged in stemming the deluge of free needles that provincially-funded agencies distribute under so-called “harm reduction” programs in their communities.

Swan Valley passed a bylaw forbidding distribution of needles without first getting written permission from council.

Mayor Lance Jacobson of Swan River told the media that more than 500,000 needles were handed out in his community of 5,000 people.

“The biggest thing is a plan of rehabilitation for those individuals, which we just recently learned that there is no plan for rehabilitation,” Jacobson said to CTV. Instead, addicts stayed hooked and his government had to clean up the mess.

The Pas, also hard-hit by the costs incurred to deal with a problem Manitoba “health” agencies created, joined Swan River to raise a motion at the AMM Fall Conference that spoke these hard truths:

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“The current management of discarded sharps has placed an undue burden on municipalities.”

“Municipalities are forced to manage improperly discarded needles by designing, building, and maintaining disposal systems, diverting valuable resources away from municipal priorities, and placing an unacceptable burden on local governments.”

“Current harm reduction practices increases the risk of needle stick injuries and diseases, especially for children and vulnerable individuals.”

The motion passed, calling on the AMM to lobby the province to evaluate the distribution programs, collect actual data, establish needle-return targets, and help with needle clean-up costs. However, before the vote, NDP Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith had already sent a letter to officials of four regional health authorities, cutting off harm reduction funding.

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“The Manitoba government is mandating that all regional health authorities develop comprehensive disposal and cleanup plans as a condition for provincial funding for harm reduction activities.”

She’s allotted $30,000 in new funding for each authority to get it going.

While Winnipeg media reported the emerging story from outside the Perimeter, none questioned why there was no action taken by the NDP about discarded used needles in Winnipeg. We could only wish to be dealing with a mere half a million like Swan River. Main Street Project alone gives away half a million.

In 2019, I investigated the wafer-thin basis for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority having escalated distribution of free needles and deliberately abandoning the ‘needle exchange’ part of ‘free needle’ programs. The WRHA’s “harm reduction” policy and free needle exchange program was based on a 1996 study from Baltimore — where NO ONE was cranking methamphetamine.

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“Does the WRHA have any studies that investigated the ‘meth’ effect on needle return rates?” I asked. They said they wouldn’t have time to answer that one.

When I queried officials, the WRHA asserted, “Needle distribution programs have also been shown to reduce the number of discarded needles in the community overall,” citing a study published in the year 2000.

What the WRHA tried to do, was invoke pseudo-science by referring to study findings without proving the relevance of the details they cited to the situation in Winnipeg.

In 2018 the WRHA said there was “10,000” estimated discards picked up. By 2019 the Bear Clan said the trajectory was at 120,000. That was a 1200% increase in discarded needle estimates in only 9 months.

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A Bear Clan official stated, “This is not why the organization started — so we can pick up bio-hazardous waste.”

How did the WRHA get it so wrong? Well, they’d say, “Needle return rates have very little to do with the number of needles found discarded unsafely in the community.” Yet needle returns were counted and rates were tracked and bragged about by exchange programs in Regina, Saskatoon and other places. When it was at 88%, that was proof users weren’t dumping tons of free needles onto playgrounds.

By not collecting the data, the WRHA was hiding the facts.

Another pillar of their strategy was: “Unlimited needle and syringe distribution is supported by Harm Reduction best practice recommendations.”

Street Connections reported, “Winnipeg distributed approximately 2.2 million needles in 2021-2022 … While the perceived risk of discarded needles is significant, the health risk from discarded needles is actually very small. Community needle stick injuries are rare and carry a minor risk of hepatitis C transmission.”

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Now, Minister Smith has admitted, “Proper disposal plans will help stop the spread of infectious diseases thereby reducing patient loads and hospital wait times, and strengthen public safety.”

That’s a stunning rebuke of the years the provincial health officials denied concerns regarding used needles that were tossed away. “Harm reduction” supposedly reduced harm to drug addicts, but without question created harm for our neighborhoods.

In 2019, Dr. Joss Reimer was a key figure in managing WRHA harm reduction programs. She’s now on leave from her role as WRHA chief medical officer. That doesn’t mean she should avoid accountability for her flawed policies that forced civic taxpayers to underwrite the folly of now-discredited WRHA practices.

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Mayor Scott Gillingham spoke in support of the resolution at the AMM session.

“If there are going to be harm reduction initiatives, then we also need to prioritize harm reduction for children who use our parks and playgrounds,” Gillingham said.

Yet he has no way to calculate the costs Winnipeg has incurred to hold Dr. Reimer accountable and make sure the WRHA compensates the city for those expenses. Nor does he have data to evaluate if they will adequately address the crisis in Winnipeg.

I tried to get a grasp on the extent of the discarded needle problem in Winnipeg.

I asked, “Does the City have a figure available of how many needles are given out for free this year and over say the past 5 years? Does the City have a figure of how many needles are returned via sharp containers or exchanged for new ones, and/or picked up by Bear Clan and other groups?”

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Avoiding my question, an official replied, “We do not hand out needles nor formally collect used needles.” Which no one ever suggested.

Are there 1 million needles handed out in our city? 2 million? 3 million? City Hall conveniently doesn’t know.

I was also told, “We do not count the number of needles we collect … particularly because the drop boxes could also be used for disposal of medical needles.” A lame excuse if I ever heard one.

Want an overall number of used needles picked up inside the Perimeter? By not collecting data like the WRHA, the City of Winnipeg is hiding the facts.

That’s what happens when public safety takes a back seat to “harm reduction”.

— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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