The town of Swan River, Man., and a neighbouring municipality say they’re fed up with dirty needles and drug use in their communities.
Swan River mayor Lance Jacobson told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that the town passed a resolution earlier this month banning the distribution of syringes and related drug paraphernalia.
“It has become quite an issue that we’ve witnessed in the past year or so,” Jacobson said.
“There have been people that have been stabbed while walking… It’s dangerous and some of them are just left in community places like playgrounds or schoolyards — it’s a huge concern.”
The mayor said the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network had been distributing needles to drug users in Swan River — five hours northwest of Winnipeg — but a discrepancy over who should be responsible for cleaning up used needles led to the resolution.
The resolution specifies that the town is willing to work with organizations to find a solution to the safety concerns. Jacobson said he’d like to see a focus on rehabilitation services for drug users.
“(Harm reduction agencies) really need to come and, say, have a town hall meeting and tell the community what harm reduction is and what’s happening.”
The Rural Municipality of Swan Valley West has gone even further in its efforts to combat the problem.
The municipal council passed a bylaw making it illegal to distribute any free needles, drugs or drug supplies in Swan Valley West, without written permission — with fines starting at $1,000 per occurrence per day.
Reeve Bill Gade said the bylaw doesn’t mean the community is permanently saying no to harm reduction efforts, but that the council will be able to make sure it’s done responsibly, with a proper plan in place to reduce safety risks to the public.
“Nobody here is saying you can never do this. We’re saying you’re going to prove to us you’re going to do this in a smart, responsible way,” Gade told 680 CJOB.
“As long as you can do that, we’ll let you do it. It also means that if you’re going to build a homeless shelter, you’re not going to do that before you come and talk to us first and make sure it’s a plan that works for everybody.”
Gade said the community has problems with homelessness, daily theft at local businesses, and other crime — even a kidnapping last week — that he describes as ‘heartbreaking’. Most residents in the area, he said, want to see a positive solution.
“Those aren’t things that are normal for a community of our size. We have to get to fixing them. I have never met anybody who says to me, ‘Gee, I wish we could get rid of the homeless’.
“Everybody I know, and everybody in this community’s heart breaks for those who are addicted to drugs, heart breaks for those who are outside in the cold. We want help for them. We want them to have a safe place to go. We want them to be cured of their addictions.”
