Community challenges need community support

One of the most significant challenges that Manitoba, and other parts of Canada face, is an addictions crisis. There are few people who have not been touched, either directly or indirectly, by the increase in addiction. And while addiction has been a problem for many decades, the nature of todays drugs, including opioids and fentanyl, add both complexity and severity to the challenge.

The increasing rate of addiction to these drugs has caused a corresponding rise in random violent crime and has resulted in many people feeling unsafe as they walk in certain areas of our cities. And while addiction is not the only cause of homelessness, there is little doubt that the increased number of encampments and homelessness is related to the increase in addiction.

All governments in Canada have made efforts, to varying degrees, to combat this rise in addiction and the deaths that have resulted from overdoses. In provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, there has been a particular priority placed on increasing the number of treatment beds and facilities for those struggling to break the chains of addiction. While most Manitobans support greater access to treatment facilities for those battling addiction, the focus of the NDP government has been on establishing a place where people can use illegal drugs under supervision. It is something that the NDP have long said the community supports. Yet, despite this proclamation, for more than a year now the NDP seem to be determined to fight the very community members they say are supportive of a supervised drug injection site.

For almost a year, the NDP insisted that a supervised drug injection site would be located at 200 Disraeli Freeway. Promised consultation with the community did not materialize in a meaningful way and so the local community began to hold their own meetings. They very vocally expressed their concern that the proposed drug injection site was too close to schools and daycares and lacked an actual plan to ensure that residents and those accessing the site were safe. After a year of the NDP telling the local Point Douglas residents that they were wrong, they suddenly announced that they were abandoning plans to open the supervised drug injection site at that location.

A short time later, the NDP announced that they would be opening the supervised drug injection site on Henry Avenue in Winnipeg. Apparently not having learned from previous mistakes, they failed to consult with the community prior to this announcement and the same opposition that arose with the Disraeli location has now arisen with the new proposed location.

Despite the NDP saying for years that they would garner community support for a drug injection site, they have done almost nothing to do so and have in fact done the opposite. Meanwhile, while the NDP have spent months fighting with Manitobans, critical time and resources have slipped away on dealing with the addiction crisis in Manitoba. While other provinces in Canada have been busy planning for and opening new treatment spaces for those dealing with addiction, the NDP government in Manitoba has been focusing on fighting with community residents.

Because almost everyone in Manitoba has been touched by addiction, almost everyone wants to see action taken to address this problem. And past experience has shown that the best way to address a problem that is impacting communities is to develop a plan that has the support of the community. For almost two years, Manitoba’s NDP government has taken the opposite approach.