‘It’s putting people’s safety at risk’: PCs call for mobile overdose prevention site shutdown

The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives want Sunshine House’s mobile overdose prevention site shut down, citing recent violent incidents.

Sunshine House’s mobile overdose prevention site—a supervised location where people can use drugs while monitored by staff trained in overdose response—is facing calls to shut down.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is demanding its closure following two recent violent incidents near where the van operates.

“It’s putting people’s safety at risk,” said Portage la Prairie MLA Jeff Bereza.

Bereza points to two incidents on Main Street, where the mobile overdose prevention site van operates. On March 19, police say a Good Samaritan was assaulted and robbed of her phone and smartwatch while trying to help a man believed to be overdosing. And about a week ago, a woman was assaulted by suspected drug dealers who were blocking the entrance to her nearby business.

“It was chaotic around there,” Bereza said. " There was people laying on the sidewalk. There were people that were highly intoxicated with the drugs and there’s just no one around."

Bereza says the focus should be on getting people into treatment instead of encouraging drug use.

However, Sunshine House Executive Director Levi Foy says the mobile overdose prevention site is necessary and critical to the community. “We want people to live to tomorrow,” Foy said. “And we want people to be able to be successful.”

Foy says the site has welcomed more than 10,000 visits and recorded fewer than 100 violent incidents. He also points out the van wasn’t operating during the first incident. While he acknowledges that nearby business owners would prefer the site relocated, he says there are few safe alternatives.

“It’s not ideal and it’s not a tenable long-term solution,” Foy said. “But it’s a necessary kind of intervention right now.”

The PCs remain unconvinced and have asked the federal government to revoke the exemption that allows Sunshine House to operate the mobile site.

In a statement to CTV News, a Health Canada spokesperson said, “exemptions issued under section 56.1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act can be suspended if necessary to protect public health, safety or security, and can be revoked if the site or staff have contravened any terms and conditions of the exemption.

“Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, and there is no prescribed timeline for revocation,” the statement reads in part.

It adds that the Sunshine House mobile overdose prevention site currently holds a valid federal exemption until the end of the calendar year.

A spokesperson for Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith said violence on the streets in “unacceptable.”

“Downtown safety has been an issue for many years which is why when we formed government, we made historic investments in front-line policing,” the statement reads in part.

The spokesperson added that the party has taken a balanced approach that prioritizes safety while keeping people living with addiction alive so they can seek treatment.