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Dear Candidate: 

Winnipeg, like cities across Canada, is facing a toxic drug supply that amounts to a public health emergency. Over 400 Manitobans lost their lives to an overdose in 2021, the vast majority of those in the City of Winnipeg. And the indications are that even more people will lose their lives in 2022 due to the lack of meaningful action to save lives.

Health funding is a provincial responsibility and there is much that must be done at that level of government to address this crisis. However, cities across Canada have taken action to work with community organizations and supported harm reduction efforts. Harm reduction refers to the policies, programs, and practices that aim to minimize the negative health, social and legal impacts associated with substance use.

The Manitoba Harm Reduction Network (MHRN) coordinates efforts in Manitoba to support harm reduction within and across jurisdictions. In February of this year, they worked with partner organizations to publish Harm Reduction Services in Winnipeg: A Consolidating Report and Call to Action. Building on this analysis, the Manitoba Health Coalition (MHC) has worked with MHRN to develop a set of questions for municipal candidates in the upcoming election on their support for evidence-based harm reduction initiatives such as a Supervised Consumption Site in Winnipeg.

Please complete the following five questions and return the survey to us by email at [email protected] midnight, September 19, 2022. Please answer with a “Yes” or “No” to each question, and feel free to provide additional written comments on a separate page or in the body of an email. Responses will be posted on our social media in an effort to better inform the public of each candidate’s views. 

Thank you for your participation,

Thomas Linner

Provincial Director

Manitoba Health Coalition