Promotion of Swan River cleanup event draws flak amid discarded needle problem
Social Sharing
An invitation for Swan River residents to participate in an upcoming community cleanup event has stirred concerns about how the western Manitoba town's chronic discarded needle problem is being handled, its mayor says.
In a since-deleted Facebook post published this past weekend, Prairie Mountain Health called on community members to help out in a spring cleanup event hosted by the Swan River Sharps Committee and the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network.
The event, scheduled for April 24, promised participants prizes, testing for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections as well as "snacks and fun," according to the western Manitoba health authority's post. Swan Valley Regional Secondary School was one of the institutions tagged in the post.
Swan River Mayor Lance Jacobson said Monday he believes the event was intended to focus on picking up used needles.
He said several parents called him to question the way it was promoted.
"They're worried about obviously their safety, their children's safety," Jacobson said. "It's just a mixed bag of a whole bunch of emotions, that people are feeling that they're tired of this."
Last fall, Jacobson told CBC more than 500,000 needles had been handed out over the preceding year in the town, which has about 4,000 people, and the surrounding area.
Progressive Conservative MLA Wayne Balcaen, who represents Brandon West, tabled the invite at the legislature Monday.
"Participants who join the minister's crack commando committee for the day and pick up the most dirty needles can win a prize, then get tested for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections and, of course, have snacks followed by 'fun,'" he said during question period.
"Can the minister advise what prizes she is offering the children and residents who are putting their health at risk to pick up these used needles?"
Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith responded by saying the NDP government developed a disposal plan — something the previous Progressive Conservative government did not do, she said.
"That member can continue to use divisive rhetoric. We will continue to work with the municipality," said Smith. "Under that government, they had no plan. They continued to distribute. We have a plan."
Following complaints about needles in the Swan Valley area, in November, the province gave the four regional health authorities outside Winnipeg $30,000 each to develop disposal and cleanup plans, saying that would be a requirement to get further funding for harm reduction activities.
No students participating in cleanup: division
Swan Valley School Division superintendent Rob Tomlinson said in a statement posted on social media Tuesday that while the division applauds the cleanup effort, students are not part of the event.
"Our students' safety is paramount," he said. "We assure our parents that our students will not be participating in the community spring cleanup event."
Prairie Mountain Health said in an email Tuesday the initiative is mainly focused on removing litter and debris that has accumulated during the winter, though the cleanup does include the safe collection of improperly discarded sharps.
"As with many spring cleanup efforts across Manitoba, this initiative is a collaborative effort to improve community safety and cleanliness," the health region's email said.
The health authority said it has installed seven new bins for needles in the community since January. It added that it and its partners are conducting daily sharps sweeps and responding to public reports through a dedicated call line.
Jacobson said the fact they're responding to calls is not the point.
"You still have needles scattered all over the place," he said.
"The minister has to do what, you know, the minister has to do for the province.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Calgary Herald
14 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
AHS lawsuit: Mentzelopoulos seeks expedited ruling on the legality of her firing
The former head of Alberta Health Services (AHS) is seeking to expedite her wrongful dismissal lawsuit by asking a judge to focus on the legality of how she was fired, a move that would keep the case from going to trial if granted. Article content Athana Mentzelopoulos is suing AHS and the provincial government for wrongful dismissal and seeking $1.7 million in damages. Article content Article content On Monday, lawyers for Mentzelopoulos filed an application for summary judgment in Court of King's Bench in Edmonton, alleging that Health Minister Adriana LaGrange orchestrated her Jan. 8 firing by then-deputy minister of health and AHS board member Andre Tremblay, but that both lacked the authority to do so. Article content Article content 'Only the AHS Board or the executive chair (or) chair had the authority to terminate her employment,' the application states, citing Mentzelopoulos' employment agreement with AHS. Article content Article content 'Her employment was improperly terminated by Mr. Tremblay acting without AHS authority and solely on the order of Minister LaGrange.' Article content The application seeks to narrow the focus of the legal proceedings to if the employment agreement was properly followed when Mentzelopoulos was fired, and is next scheduled to be before a judge on July 15. In the court documents, Mentzelopoulos newly alleges she was not invited to a Jan. 7 AHS board meeting organized by LaGrange, and that her exclusion led her to believe the meeting was called to have the board terminate her employment. Article content Mentzelopoulos claims she learned that LaGrange was unable to convince enough board members at that meeting to fire her, and that the minister told the board she would, 'have Andre do it.' Article content Article content 'Having failed in her attempt to cause AHS to terminate Mentzelopoulos, Minister LaGrange took it upon herself to do so, making the unilateral decision to require Mr. Tremblay to purport to terminate Mentzelopoulos, even though both he and she knew that he had no authority to do so,' the application reads. Article content It states at least three board members, including former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Lyle Oberg, would support Mentzelopoulos's claims. Article content All board members were dismissed on Jan. 31, and Tremblay was announced as the official administrator of AHS. The organization has since seen its scope reduced as part of the government's restructuring of the health care system.
Global News
3 days ago
- Global News
Province to build cutting-edge facility for CancerCare Manitoba
Manitoba's premier and health minister say the province is taking its first step toward building a new, state-of-the-art headquarters for CancerCare Manitoba. Premier Wab Kinew said Monday that the proposed facility will be located on the Bannatyne health campus at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre. Plans for a new headquarters for CancerCare were originally announced in 2015, before getting cancelled two years later by the then-Progressive Conservative provincial government. 'After years of broken promises, our government is moving forward to build CancerCare for the future with a world-class facility that gives patients the space and care they deserve, and provides the resources cancer researchers need to help more Manitobans become cancer-free. Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'The new headquarters will deliver cutting-edge care, the best quality service, the newest techniques, all in a space with more room, more light, and more comfort for Manitobans living with cancer.' Story continues below advertisement Dr. Dhali Dhaliwal, a former CancerCare CEO, said Monday that a new facility has been needed, desperately, for decades. 'The current CancerCare building was full the day it opened in 2003,' Dhaliwal said. 'With all the dramatic advances in cancer treatments, Manitoba needs a facility that has the space and resources to deliver the most effective care to our cancer patients.'
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Manitoba's regional authorities spent over $35M last year in the ongoing effort to keep hospital workers safe
Last Christmas Eve, a man walked into Thompson General Hospital with a loaded rifle concealed in his clothing. He moved through the emergency department and other areas — some full of patients — before taking an elevator to the second-floor chapel. No one knows how long the 33-year-old man was in the facility. He was discovered by a patient who wanted to use the chapel for prayer. The patient, hearing a commotion behind the locked doors, notified a nurse. Security was nowhere to be found. They showed up only after the gunman pointed the weapon at a nurse and fired a bullet through a window. The life-threatening scenario highlights a double-barrel dilemma facing Manitoba's health-care system: how much more needs to be spent on safety measures, which has already increased exponentially in recent years, and is what's already in place making a difference? The Northern Health Region, which oversees Thompson's hospital operations, earmarked $1.18 million for security measures last year, a tenfold increase from a decade ago. 'Our security officers that we have now are untrained, incompetent individuals,' said a Thompson nurse, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. In the last fiscal year, Manitoba's six regional health authorities spent a total of $35.4 million on security measures, according to freedom of information documents obtained by the Free Press. It's an expenditure that has been escalating over the last 10 years, according to the data received from each health authority, and includes equipment, call systems, staffing and contract costs for security guards. The breakdown for the RHAs — comparing spending in the 2014-2015 fiscal year to 2024-2025 — is as follows: • Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority jumped from $9,088 to more than $1.86 million. • Southern Health-Santé Sud increased from $336,911 to $1.51 million. • Prairie Mountain Health went from $678,485 to $4.69 million. • Northern Health climbed from $123,281 to $1.18 million; • Winnipeg RHA (excluding Health Sciences Centre) more than doubled from $5.26 million to $13.3 million. HSC spent $10.08 million in 2019-2020 and more than $12.8 million in 2024-2025 (only six years of data was provided for Manitoba's largest health-care facility). Experts and health officials say there are several reasons for the increase, notably enforcement of rules and restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and the dramatic way in which hospitals and their staffs increasingly find themselves on the front line dealing with a variety of societal struggles. 'Higher rates of mental-health problems and addiction within our population have contributed to increases in incidents of violence and aggression in ERs and other health-care settings,' Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said in a statement. As a result, the western Manitoba region expanded its security personnel numbers to monitor sites in Brandon, Dauphin, Virden and Russell. Cam Baldwin, the provincial protective services lead for Shared Health, attributed HSC's spending to methamphetamine and opioid-related behaviours and ailments, often encountered first by police and paramedics. 'The crimes that are being committed are often related to those dependencies and the resulting outcome of that is many of them need to be treated in hospitals,' Baldwin said in an interview. 'Unfortunately, that has created the requirement for additional security within the hospitals.' In February, the province installed AI-powered weapon detectors at three HSC entrances. The machines have detected 491 'potentially dangerous items,' such as knives thus far. BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS In February, the province installed AI-powered weapon detectors at three HSC entrances. BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS In February, the province installed AI-powered weapon detectors at three HSC entrances. The HSC campus also now employs 42 institutional safety officers, who are specially trained to restrain people and are armed with pepper gel. The province has safety officers — in addition to private security guards — stationed at St. Boniface Hospital, Victoria Hospital, Selkirk Regional Health Centre and Brandon Regional Health Centre. A spokesperson for Southern Health-Santé Sud said a formal security program for the region was not in place until 2019 when baseline funding was established. Prior to that, security was funded on an ad hoc basis. A representative of Interlake-Eastern Health said costs are a reflection of increasing use of contracted and on-staff security services in facilities 'where necessary.' Northern Health did not respond to questions regarding security costs. The pandemic exacerbated violence and security issues in health-care facilities everywhere, according to a U.S.-based security consultant and former security executive for AdventHealth, a faith-based hospital network in Florida. 'A lot of that was politically driven by masks and people not wanting to wear the mask, not necessarily for health reasons, but because they had a political spin on it,' Bill Marcisz said. 'You can imagine what happens when a loved one is passing away, or you want to go visit your son or daughter being born and you're not allowed in there.' Mental health, addictions and the stress that goes along with health care are all factors in security spending, he said, plus there has been a greater push for facilities to document incidents. As more cases are recorded, the need for security increases, Marcisz said. 'There's a lot of things that go into this,' he said. The president of the Manitoba Nurses Union agreed. 'The reality is that we've seen a lot of facilities that have become less of a strictly health-care facility… our emergency departments are seeing more and more individuals attending them because it's a safe place to be,' Darlene Jackson said. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES 'A hospital health-care facility is really sort of a beacon of safety, so there are many issues that need to be dealt with,' says Darlene Jackson, President of the Manitoba Nurses Union. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES 'A hospital health-care facility is really sort of a beacon of safety, so there are many issues that need to be dealt with,' says Darlene Jackson, President of the Manitoba Nurses Union. Jackson said nurses constantly tell her waiting rooms are used as makeshift shelters because homeless people either can't access a shelter due to barriers or capacity, or they don't feel safe. People often come in with minor ailments to exploit the health-care system's long wait times and spend the night in a secure building, Jackson said. 'A hospital health-care facility is really sort of a beacon of safety, so there are many issues that need to be dealt with. And until those issues are dealt with, I don't see how we can do anything else and just keep increasing security costs,' she said. 'The issue is not in our emergency department. It's beyond the doors of our emergency department.' Manitoba Health is aware some patients in ERs need alternative care and is working with Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith to redirect them to shelters and other organizations, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Thursday. Working with homeless shelters and non-profits, as well as building a supervised consumption site and sobering centre are part of the government's plan to address the issue, Asagwara said. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Health minister Uzoma Asagwara says institutional safety officers are on the way for Thompson. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Health minister Uzoma Asagwara says institutional safety officers are on the way for Thompson. 'Our priority is making sure that people have the ability to access the right care at the right place at the right time,' the minister said. 'We're working across government to make sure there are more appropriate places.' More social workers and safety officers in hospitals could also help address the issue, Asagwara said. Dan Nodrick, director of development at Siloam Mission, acknowledged that transient individuals are using health-care facilities as a safe haven or shelter and that the problem will persist without an influx of more affordable housing. Siloam's daily capacity is 143 people, but the organization stretches it to 147 nearly every day. 'Three years ago in the summertime there was always room in the shelter. We've been full for two years solid,' he said. The Thompson nurse and her colleagues have been begging health officials for the institutional safety officer program to be introduced at their hospital. Security personnel hired by the Northern Health Region don't have the ability to physically intervene, leaving many health-care workers vulnerable to violent incidents, she said. 'There's been many situations… security may come out of the office and ask me if I'm calling RCMP,' she said. 'It's often a common occurrence. 'With the multiple socioeconomic barriers and constraints in Thompson… personnel that can actually intervene appropriately, we may see a decrease in the violence that we experience every day.' Only a few days after the Christmas Eve incident, there was another frightening scene. After arriving by ambulance, a patient began hurling insults, racial slurs and threats at emergency department staff while clenching his fists. 'I stood up in front of the patient — I'm only five-foot-one — and I said, 'You are going to leave the facility and when you are ready to be respectful, you can come back,'' the nurse said. 'I'm surprised I didn't get in trouble with my employer; even though we have a zero-tolerance policy it is never enforced. We are almost expected to take the behaviour.' Asagwara said institutional safety officers are on the way for Thompson, but in the meantime, the province is looking at instituting a First Nations Safety Officer program, which will hire and train safety officers from the community to work alongside hospital security. 'Health-care workers should be able to go to work and feel safe and focus on providing the best patient care possible,' the minister said. 'So should patients and visitors.' On William Avenue earlier this week, just outside Winnipeg's downtown core, a security guard clad in a black-and-grey uniform stepped out into the evening sun from HSC's adult emergency department. She scanned the scene from left to right before taking a few steps to peek around each corner of the entrance, something that happens every 15 minutes. The HSC campus employs 42 institutional safety officers. The HSC campus employs 42 institutional safety officers. Check completed, she walked back inside, to a vestibule where her partner sat next to the AI-weapon detector. Similar, but smaller than more-familiar metal detectors used in other venues, the equipment is adorned with Shared Health's logo colours of orange, yellow, teal and green. Just beyond it, a metal-detecting wand sits on a desk with a security log book beside it. Signs at the entrance door warn visitors of the security checkpoint ahead. Hammers, guns and knives are not welcome inside but can be stored in provided amnesty lockers. 'Thank you for keeping this facility safe,' the sign states. Nicole BuffieMultimedia producer Nicole Buffie is a multimedia producer who reports for the Free Press city desk. Born and bred in Winnipeg, Nicole graduated from Red River College's Creative Communications program in 2020 and worked as a reporter throughout Manitoba before joining the Free Press newsroom in 2023. Read more about Nicole. Every piece of reporting Nicole produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
