Manitoba Opposition to delay bill that would license some addiction centres

The Official Opposition NDP were at Sunshine House Monday morning, joined by harm reduction advocates and frontline workers to announce that they plan to stop Bill 33 in it’s tracks.

Manitoba NDP Leader Wab Kinew says Bill 33 get’s in the way of harm reduction in the province.

“The Manitoba NDP is going to delay Bill 33 this year – effectively killing this Bill,” said Kinew.

“It fails to recognize the obvious situation we have here in Manitoba – which is we have more than one Manitoban dying per day from the addictions crisis and these organizations who are heroically there, holding people’s hands in these difficult moments on the frontlines. What they need is a government that will help them, not bury them in red tape.”

Sunshine House Executive Director Levi Foy says they’re all for the NDP delaying the Bill, effectively killing it as the election year means no fall-sitting.

“What Bill 33 does is does not allow communities to be able to respond in the way they need to respond, in the timely fashion’s that we need to respond.”

Foy says there are two people on Sunshine Houses Administration team, and dedicating time to meet the additional steps Bill 33 brings would take away from their work, and make their organization more-resemble a traditional clinic, which is not a step Foy wants to take.

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“We would face a lot of difficulties, people may not want to come in if we have to check them through a rigorous check-in process, and then we’d have to immediately connect them with a detox centre.”

Foy says the Bill gives a lot of power with vague guidelines to an inspector and director in being able to shut down services, and Foy says there isn’t any clear recourse they could take to fight back. This is the first Bill the NDP have chosen to delay this year.

“When a provincial government does not support harm reduction, safe consumption sites or safe supply – they use these Bills as a way to shut us down, and that’s not what we need in Manitoba,” said Arlene Last-Kolb, Moms Stop the Harm.

The delay means the bill may not become law at all, as an election is scheduled for Oct. 3.

The Progressive Conservative government introduced the bill last month.

It would set standards of care, require minimum levels of medical supervision and provide for fines of up to $50,000 per day for violators.

– With files from the Canadian Press