ManitobaThere’s no final decision or opening timeline yet for Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site, but the government believes it has found the ideal spot this time — despite criticism already surfacing.’We had 570 deaths last year. A good portion … were out and around that area’: SmithDarren Bernhardt · CBC News · Posted: Dec 08, 2025 12:49 PM EST | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Manitoba is proposing a supervised drug consumption site at 366 Henry Ave., just north of downtown Winnipeg. (Google Street View)There’s no final decision or opening timeline yet for Manitoba’s first supervised drug consumption site, but the government believes it has found the ideal spot this time — despite criticism already surfacing.”People are using in and around that area, and Winnipeg fire, police and paramedics have responded to the majority of calls in that area,” Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said Monday, referring to the site at 366 Henry Ave., just south of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway yard. “We had 570 deaths last year. A good portion of those were out and around that area.”The site is also just two blocks from Siloam Mission, which offers food, shelter and health care to people in need.”Putting it in an area where it’s like, yeah, it’s central, but it’s also so close to [Siloam] … that people go to for help, that’s not helping these people who are already maybe possibly struggling,” said Kelly Miranda, manager of Pampanga, a restaurant and banquet hall also in the area. Finding a location for a supervised consumption site has been a challenge. Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith says the community will be consulted before a final decision is made on the Henry Avenue proposal for a consumption site, but the government feels it is a perfect location. (Jaison Empson/CBC)The province first announced in July 2024 that it planned to open one in Winnipeg. Five months later, it was revealed a space on Disraeli Freeway, at the edge of south Point Douglas, had been identified as the location.Those plans were halted in September 2025 after many in the area objected, with one of the main concerns being a school across the road.In response, the province added a requirement that any consumption site must be at least 250 metres from a school or child-care facility.The proposed Henry location is just under 700 metres from Dufferin School and a neighbouring daycare.”So it’s certainly outside that radius. We wanted to make sure that we were listening to that,” Smith said Monday in an interview with CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa.”Safety and security is absolutely a No. 1 concern for us, so we are listening.”People need access to supports, and that’s exactly what the site will accomplish, she said — it won’t simply be where people can consume their drugs.”[It will be] a place to access resources, primary health care, mental health supports, a place to get access to housing,” she said.It will be a place where people can find compassionate, caring support, build relationships and realize they have potential and a path to recovery, Smith said.”[So they can] get their lives back on track, get their kids back, if that’s what led them to where they’re at, deal with the trauma that’s led them to why they’re dealing with what they’re dealing with and really help them aspire to be the best person that they want to be.”People are already using drugs openly in parks, on the street and in the bathrooms of businesses, Smith said. The supervised site will connect them to help.“Nobody chooses to be addicted,” she said.Premier Wab Kinew has previously said he would like to see the site open in January but he’s “willing to be flexible.”The community will be consulted before a final decision is made on the Henry location, Smith said.There are two upcoming sessions: an in-person one on Tuesday at Siloam Mission and a virtual one via Zoom on Thursday. Both run from 6 to 8 p.m. That will give the government an opportunity to explain how the plan is being created with the police, the Downtown Community Partnership and the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre, which will employ community wellness ambassadors to make sure those who need the consumption site are aware of it and using it, Smith said.”We do not want people using in and around [the site]. We want to make sure people are coming inside, accessing those services.”Smith was asked if the government would consider yet another location if it encounters opposition to the Henry site, as it did with the Disraeli address.”It’s a proposed location, right? We continue to take that feedback, listen to that feedback, and certainly we look at what the concerns are,” she said.Detox centre a success: SmithBut the government will open a site at some point, she said.”We want to keep Manitobans alive. We come from a harm-reduction approach, we come from an enforcement approach, we come from an education approach, and certainly we want to make sure that we are getting those folks to the supports and recovery.”Manitoba has a new 72-hour detox centre that has been open for nearly a week, but Smith wouldn’t say much about it.”It’s been successful and, you know, we haven’t had any concerns. People are accessing those services, relationships are being built, and we’re going to continue to build on that model,” she said.”I know there were a lot of concerns from the community … [but] it’s going very well.”She wouldn’t say how many people have been detained since it opened Dec. 2.”We don’t share numbers, because it’s people’s privacy, right? And we want to keep that privacy, their own privacy,” she said.”This is about getting people the services and supports that they need so that they can get onto a path to recovery and support them and meet them where they’re at.”ABOUT THE AUTHORDarren Bernhardt has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of two bestselling books: The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent, and Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories.With files from Gavin Axelrod and Meaghan Ketcheson
Location for proposed drug consumption site is where people are struggling, addictions minister says
