Mayor Scott Gillingham released the following public statement today:
Today, I asked the City Clerk to make a last-minute addition to the Executive Policy Committee agenda to discuss a legal challenge that could affect our efforts to address open drug use and addiction on our streets.
Drugs like meth and fentanyl aren’t just dangerous to people who take them. They also have destructive side effects which can, in turn, lead their users to threaten or harm others.
Late last year, the Manitoba Legislature voted almost unanimously to pass Bill 48 - The Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act. This law allows public officials to detain a person under the influence of drugs or alcohol for up to three days, if doing so would either protect the intoxicated person from self-harm, or if doing so would prevent them from posing a danger to others.
As Mayor, I personally spoke in support of Premier Kinew’s decision to propose Bill 48. I was not alone: both opposition parties supported it as well. The only vote against it was from a single independent member of the Legislature.
Recently, we learned that a local doctor is suing the Province of Manitoba at King’s Bench, seeking to declare Bill 48 unconstitutional. The first hearing on his case is set for June 10th. I don’t doubt the doctor’s sincerity, or his motives.
However, Bill 48 is a reasonable response to the reality we face. For example, we have learned that it is common for Fire-Paramedic responders to save the life of the same addict from an overdose more than once on the same shift. Last week, my homelessness advisor shared the grim news that volunteer shelter workers are starting to experience the same repetitive pattern.
Without some legal means to interrupt this destructive cycle, the victims of addiction will always be drawn back to the street in search of their next overdose, indefinitely. This keeps heartless drug dealers in business, but it is unsustainable for our highly trained emergency workers, who are increasingly called on to administer Naloxone or Narcan more than any other task.
That’s why I asked the City’s Legal Services branch to brief Executive Policy Committee members in camera today. We need to better understand the implications of this lawsuit, and to consider what alternatives might be available to support Bill 48 if City Council chose to do so.
As we gather advice, I will continue to speak out on behalf of frontline City and community workers who are confronting this health and safety risk on our streets, 24 hours-a-day and seven days a week. And my office will continue its ongoing work to develop a new emergency response unit, designed specifically to handle mental health and addiction crises.