Community Meeting On Safe Injection Sites

​I attended a community meeting in Point Douglas yesterday regarding the proposed safe injection site, and I heard from both sides about the pros and cons of the project. I noticed right away that there were no members of the NDP government representing on the panel. Why were they not there to debate the merits of the site? As I understand it, this is their project, and they should be present to answer for it.

​They did have a speaker from Toronto. While some might be skeptical, Toronto is about ten years ahead of us regarding these diseases, plagues, and epidemics, even if they do have inferior sports teams. The speaker shared how these sites are not working in Toronto and have failed.

It was a little embarrassing to see citizens of Winnipeg booing or attacking him just because he is not from this city. I wish people would remember that we are all Canadians. Community discussions like this do not need to be volatile or involve hate speech.​

The speaker was intelligent and brought up many strong points based on the opinions of doctors and industry professionals. What he said makes sense to anyone who lives in one of these communities.

First, most drug users are not going to travel across the city to use, they usually use as fast as they can purchase their drugs.

Second, there was talk about keeping drug dealers out of the building, but how is that possible when they can’t even keep them from following the mobile vans around the city? As the vehicles pull away, the dealers show up.

I even recognized at least two local dealers in the attendees last night. We don’t give these dealers enough credit, they are innovative and see these sites as nothing more than another way to profit from vulnerable people.

​Third, we should not be enabling addiction. The money we spend every time we have to call an ambulance for a paramedic to administer Narcan adds up to millions of dollars every year. We should be focusing on the bigger picture. Helping these poor souls get off narcotics. We should be putting them in rehab, but ensuring that once they are released, they have a job waiting, a place to live, and the support needed to stay away from drugs.

The money can come from the savings we find when we no longer need constant emergency calls. We need to help these people be part of our community instead of sweeping them under the carpet at an injection site.​

From the business owners I spoke to, the consensus is that if this site goes through, the economic disaster for retail and commercial properties would be catastrophic for long-term residents. We need to stop covering up the problem and face it head-on with severe jail time for those producing and selling drugs, combined with real help for those with addictions.​

What people don’t see is that the ages are getting younger. Just last week, I had to administer Narcan to a teenager who couldn’t have been much older than 14. I cannot imagine what our EMS or firefighters see every day, and I applaud those true heroes.

We talk about global pandemics, but we should be just as concerned about the meth and fentanyl pandemic and what the future will look like in five years if we don’t do something now.​

This is a problem we need to solve without worrying about the cost. When the government mentions costs, I have to wonder, is there a file explaining what a Canadian life is worth? Is it $50,000 or $100,000? Are children’s lives worth more or less? If we don’t fix this, money will mean nothing because there won’t be a future.

There is no more time for debate. Action must be taken. We are not just talking about strangers, we are talking about our friends, our family, our children, and our humanity.