Province promises $1.5M funding boost for downtown Winnipeg safety patrols, sobering centre

July 9, 2024 Canuck

Manitoba’s provincial government rolled out funding Tuesday for a plan it says will help improve public safety in Winnipeg’s downtown through the summer, while also offering an immediate emergency response plan to help those struggling with addiction and mental health challenges.

The downtown safety plan, developed in partnership with the city, will allocate nearly $1.5 million in funding to expand community safety patrols and mental health training for downtown partners, Premier Wab Kinew said Tuesday.

But a cornerstone in the plan is the expansion of an outreach centre at a Winnipeg shelter, where people under the influence of intoxicants can be taken to sober up.

“When somebody is in crisis, when somebody is acting out in the streets, we want to get them health-care services,” Kinew said at a morning news conference at True North Square.

“But the desire to respond with compassion and health care cannot be an excuse for inaction in the face of issues we see are causing other Manitobans to be threatened or to feel unsafe.”

The sobering centre will receive the bulk of the new funding announced Tuesday — nearly $1.1 million — to scale up its operations at the N’Dinawemak-Our Relatives’ Place shelter on Disraeli Freeway, adding seven workers in new health and mental health positions to the site.

Above the shelter’s common area, where dormitories for men are currently located, an unused space once used to process leather and textiles will be refurbished to accommodate 50 new beds by this winter, with the help of provincial funding.

A man in a checkered shirt is seated on a blue bed, in a room full of beds. — Frank Parkes, N’Dinawemak’s executive director, is pleased the Indigenous-run facility will be receiving more money from the province so it can be a sobering centre for more guests. (Ian Froese/CBC)

“To open up this fourth quadrant, it is a real blessing,” said Frank Parkes, N’Dinawemak’s executive director. “It’s an opportunity just waiting to happen.”

The Indigenous-run shelter runs at full capacity most days, with emergency services already bringing people to the facility to sober up, said Parkes.

With the provincial funding, he expects the shelter to continue to be busy with paramedics, police officers and foot patrols dropping off more people under the influence from the city’s core this summer.

Funding to double staff foot patrols

There will also be just over $400,000, from the province, the mayor’s office and the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone, to help the Downtown Community Safety Partnership enhance foot patrols by doubling the number of staff in the core this summer.

The safety patrol assisted in 716 wellness checks in June alone, reversing seven overdose opioid poisoning events last month, according to its executive director.

“The funding announced today will allow the DCSP to forge closer and expanding relationships while scaling up operational partnerships,” Greg Burnett said at Tuesday’s news conference.

One of those partnerships includes bridging a communication gap with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, he said. Both organizations now co-ordinate calls through a shared radio system, enabling them to dispatch the right first responder at the right time.

“We want to ensure that individuals who are struggling with addiction and mental health issues or housing needs have access to the necessary supports,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said at the news conference.

“At the same time, we cannot let unwell people determine the state of our downtown. We can’t be continually threatened by safety issues.”

Kinew said the new public safety initiatives are an immediate response to carry the city through the summer until long-term solutions to address problematic substance use and drug addictions, including funding for education, mental health and addiction services, can be settled.

“Our government is tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, and we have to put both of those kinds of responses together if we really want to make downtown safer for the long term,” he said.

Progressive Conservative justice critic Wayne Balcaen said the NDP needs to develop a long-term commitment to improving public safety, rather than a strategy that only accounts for a few months in one part of the province.

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