Province supports development of first Indigenous-led supervised consumption site

Article content

The Manitoba government is providing $727,000 to support the development of the country’s first Indigenous-led supervised consumption site in Winnipeg in partnership with the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg (AHWC).

Article content

“It is my honour to be standing here on this historic day to be making this announcement that we’re partnering with Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre in creating our first Aboriginal Indigenous-led supervised consumption site,” said Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith at an event with community partners Friday, noting that a service model grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing, world views and perspectives is needed, and the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre is well-positioned to ensure community needs are centred.

“A day like this is incredible, months, years in the making,” said Monica Cyr, AHWC senior director of clinical operations. “To be part of this come to fruition, it almost feels surreal, extremely humbling. The amount of people across Winnipeg from every direction overwhelmingly is reaching out and saying, ‘Good job. We support you. What do you need?’ It’s been incredible and so we recognize right now in this moment and for over the next 12 months the amount of work hitting the ground running, getting this operation alive as soon as we possibly. First things first, we need a building but it means that we’re going to change the face of the way that Winnipeggers and the way that health care services are delivering consumption services and addiction treatment as well.”

Article content

Article content

AHWC will lead the service design and delivery of the new site, and a new co-ordinator with Shared Health will ensure service integration with the broader provincial mental health and addiction system, the province said in a press release. A location has yet to selected for the supervised consumption site other than it would be “west of Main Street.” It is planned to be in operation sometime next year.

“We want to make sure that we’re getting it right,” said Smith, who got emotional during her presentation while saying that her father died from addiction 22 years ago and that a ceremony had been held Thursday for her sister who lost her battle to addiction. “We don’t want to rush through the process. When I was on the opposition side, I visited many other provinces and looked at their supervised consumption sites. When I became minister, I asked our department to do jurisdictional scans and when we identified the partner that’s the work that they started to do.”

Article content

At a press conference in Montreal Friday, federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called supervised consumption sites “drug dens” that a future Conservative government would not fund and seek to close.

During a visit to a park near a supervised consumption site in Montreal’s southwest, Poilievre said he would shutter all locations near schools, playgrounds and “anywhere else that they endanger the public.”

“Radical bureaucrats don’t have the right to open these drugs dens anywhere they want,” he said.

Smith said a change in federal government would have any affect on the proposed Winnipeg site.

“We’re working toward opening (a supervised consumption site) here in Winnipeg right now so we’re just focused on what we’re doing here in Manitoba,” said Smith, blaming the previous Progressive Conservative government for not taking action to create supervised consumption sites in Manitoba. “We’ve heard strongly from the community that it is something that needs to happen. We’ve had over 400 deaths here in our province.

Article content

“We need to ensure that people have access to resources here in our province and this is what it’s about,” Smith added. “It’s about providing support, resources and listening to the community and this is what the community has been asking for for many years.”

“This space is long overdue. Our Indigenous and non-Indigenous relatives continue to die from overdoses and the toxic drug supply, and we must do more,” said Della Herrera, executive director, AHWC and also a member of the Manitoba government’s Matriarch Circle. “This solution is Indigenous-led and guided by people with lived and living experience, wherever they are on their journey.”

Herrera, along with Cyr and Charlene Hallett, cultural health and integration lead, are leading an addiction-to-treatment wraparound-care model for those who will access the site.

Article content

“We’re excited to be working alongside Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre as they develop and launch this Indigenous-led supervised consumption site in Winnipeg,” said Dr. Erin Knight, medical lead, Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) for Shared Health. “This space, as one part of a larger harm reduction strategy, will complement and integrate with treatment services to better support people who use drugs and contribute to a safer community for us all.”

Supervised consumption sites typically include a reception area, consumption spaces and post-consumption common areas. Staff are trained to respond to accidental overdoses and other emergencies and can refer to and support patrons in accessing health and social services.

Article content

“The Winnipeg Police Service was invited to be present (at the announcement), this is the first step of engagement,” said Supt. Bonnie Emerson, who heads the Winnipeg Police’s community engagement division. “We’re looking forward to continuing the talks with the community to look at wrap-around supports and having a holistic model looking at taking care of relatives and people in a good, safe healthy way.”

glen.dawkins@kleinmedia.ca

X: @SunGlenDawkins

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

Article content