ManitobaA planned 72-hour detox centre for people found highly intoxicated in Winnipeg could be situated within a space previously eyed for a safe consumption site, Premier Wab Kinew says.If bill passes, ‘protective care centre’ will go near where consumption site failed to materialize: premierBryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Oct 09, 2025 2:37 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 9Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew said on Thursday a ‘protective care centre,’ or 72-hour detox centre, will open at this site at 190 Disraeli Fwy — if Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith’s Bill 48 passes. (Rudi Pawlychyn/CBC)A planned 72-hour detox centre for people found highly intoxicated in Winnipeg could be situated within a space previously eyed for a safe consumption site, Premier Wab Kinew says.The “protective care centre,” where intoxicated people could be held for up to three days, would be developed within 190 Disraeli Fwy. near the current 24-hour detox centre run by Main Street Project, Kinew said.”When I think about the emergency room in the Health Sciences Centre, when I think about kids walking home from school in some of these neighbourhoods, when I think about seniors who have been targeted in random violence by people who are using meth, to me the justification is so strong to move to open this facility,” Kinew told reporters Thursday at the legislature. “Unfortunately, there’s a demand for this service, and the demand is the community wants us to take action to stop the damage and the effects of meth psychosis out on our streets.”Kinew said the first step would be to add 20 beds, then another 20, at the Disraeli site early in the new year. Whether that happens will depend on whether Bill 48, introduced last week by Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith, passes into legislation.Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew speaks during question period last week. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)Smith tabled the Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act on Oct. 2. It would replace the Intoxicated Persons Act, adopted in 1987, as well as the Detoxification Centres Regulation.The new legislation would extend the length of time a detox centre could hold someone found intoxicated on meth or other drugs, Smith said last week.Her bill passed first reading last Thursday, though Official Opposition Leader Obby Khan criticized it after the fact. Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith during question period Oct. 2 after introducing Bill 48. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)In a scrum with reporters last week, Khan characterized the bill as vague, and questioned how much it would cost to operate with medical staff the NDP have suggested would be present to help monitor those detained, as well connect them with resources.Khan also raised questions about where the “protective care centres,” as they’re referred to in the bill, would go. Khan pointed to the NDP’s attempt to open a supervised consumption site within the Disraeli location, only to back away from that plan amid opposition from local residents who said the site was too close to a schools, a child-care centre and homes.He echoed some of those same points Thursday. While the PCs are in favour of upping the detention time length, Khan said there are still unknowns regarding how the legislation could be applied or how the protective care centres will be operated.Official Opposition Leader Obby Khan suggested the bill was vague on details last week. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)”If they’re released on the street right beside or in the vicinity of an area where [there] is known … to be drug consumption happening, what’s going to happen to that area?” he said. “More drug dealers might come to that area … to sell to the people that are now being released.”Kinew said Thursday one reason the site has been selected for an expanded detox centre is that it is already owned by the Manitoba government.Portage la Prairie MLA Jeff Bereza, health critic for the PCs, said it’s unclear how the protective care centre legislative changes would influence rural communities.”In rural Manitoba, we have the RCMP that are responsible for a lot of this. So what happens, say, in Roblin, Manitoba, if we pick up somebody who has to be looked after for 72 hours, but there’s not a protection site in Roblin?” Bereza said. “Who transfers that person to the protective site, if it’s in Brandon … probably a two, three-hour trip?”Kinew urged the Progressive Conservatives to vote yes on the bill Thursday ahead of it facing a second reading during question period. In addition to detaining people, the protective care centre on Disraeli would also provide medical care, including prenatal testing, and provide medication to address any sexually transmitted or blood-borne infections, among other services.WATCH | Kinew announces 190 Disraeli as site of 1st meth detox centre:Manitoba government chooses meth detox site in Winnipeg Premier Wab Kinew says a 20-bed methamphetamine detox centre will be placed in a Disraeli Freeway building that was once slated to be a supervised consumption centre.With files from Bartley Kives
NDP eye Disraeli site for new 72-hour detox centre in downtown Winnipeg
