‘I think we’ve reached a state of an emergency’: Manitobans declare after recent spike in overdoses

Advocates are calling on Manitoba’s chief public health officer and the provincial government to declare a public health emergency.

WINNIPEG – Arlene Last-Kolb’s son Jesse was just 24 years old when he died from a fentanyl overdose.

His death still impacts her life.

“He went out one night and he never came home,” she said. “When we talk about a regulated drug supply and we talk about the safety of our loved ones, that is an example of our son struggling and having to get what he needs and going to a place that was unsafe and him dying.”

Over the past decade, Last-Kolb has channelled her grief into advocacy, working to reduce the rising number of drug-related deaths.

A recent spike in fatalities linked to a toxic drug supply in Winnipeg has intensified her concerns.

She is now calling on the province, and Manitoba’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin, to declare a public health emergency.

“I think we’ve reached a state of an emergency. We know the toxic drug supply has been killing our loved ones for many years now,” she said.

“We believe that we need help. We believe that we need to mobilize our government to do way more and we need our public health officer to declare this emergency.”

Last-Kolb is frustrated that this problem continues to not only persist but get worse overtime.

“I am incredibly angry that so many other families are going through what we’re going through,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

According to the latest provincial numbers, over 350 Manitobans died from substance related deaths between January and November of 2025.

‘Issue for generations’

Some frontline organizations in Winnipeg have also called for the province to declare the deaths an emergency, including Winnipeg’s Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY), who in the last few weeks lost six people between the ages of 19 and 33 to drug poisoning.

“These are mortality spikes that are very concerning to us,” said Kate Sjoberg, who is the executive director of RaY in Winnipeg.

“What’s in the drug supply is unpredictable, and that leads to more danger for people that are using.”

Medetomidine, also known as mede, is an animal tranquilizer, and is toxic to humans.

Sjoberg says this tranquilizer has been showing up in Winnipeg’s drug supply over the last few weeks.

It’s a drug that is meant to keep horses sedated during surgery and is extremely toxic for humans.

“There’s a couple of dangerous things about this,” Sjoberg said. “Withdrawal from vet tranquilizers is very dangerous and can lead to elevated heart rates, can lead to uncontrollable vomiting, and it often requires ER support.”

Sunshine House, which is a resource centre focused on harm reduction in Winnipeg, recently told CTV News that naloxone, which is life-saving medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdoses, does not work for medetomidine.

In a statement, the province told CTV News they have been in touch with community partners and are deeply concerned with the toxic drug supply.

“No Manitoban should lose their life to drugs,” Bernadette Smith, who is Manitoba’s Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness. “We are monitoring the situation, and we will continue to meet with our partners to ensure that they have the resources they need.”

Smith says the government has invested in over 1,500 treatment spaces, have distributed over 63,000 naloxone kits and are working to open Manitoba’s first supervised consumption site.

“Our government has taken a balanced approach to address the overdose crisis,” she said.

Smith also confirmed that a public health emergency can only be called by Manitoba’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin.

Solutions needed

Ian Culbert says there is no single intervention that will solve this growing problem.

He says the response has to include prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery supports to address the toxic drug supply.

“The evidence is really clear. We need a continuum of supports from outreach and supervised consumption services to treatment on demand, safer supply approaches, housing, and mental-health supports,” said Culbert, who is the executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA).

“Making treatment available is like throwing someone a life jacket in rough water. The life jacket is critical, but if a person panics, or is struggling and unable to reach for it in that moment, its availability alone doesn’t guarantee safety.”

“If we want fewer deaths, we need to stop debating one intervention versus another and build a full public health response which meets the needs of people where they are,” he said.