We've led the way in reporting the NDP's attempts to impose a "safe consumption" facility in Winnipeg - and the questions posed by residents to City Council about its responsibility to address concerns about public safety in the targetted neighborhoods. In Episode 8, Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt provides his views on Council's role, the shortcomings of the Province's 'harm reduction' approach, and why City officials are obliged to step into the fray and not turn away.

5.44 Part 2- With personal, lived experience with addiction and recovery, Russ Wyatt didn't hesitate to agree that Winnipeg council has to ask the NDP government to specifically exclude youth under 18 from utilizing the SCS proposed for 366 Henry Avenue.

(See- NDP under fire for allowing minors at drug consumption site)

He addresses the broader issues about overall government policy- "when it comes to mental health and addiction, you might as well call us Mississippi Manitoba, because we're not only one of the poorest provinces in Confederation today, when it comes to health care, it seems we're kind of the most backward as well."

Wyatt believes that the Wab Kinew government needs to look towards the model implemented in Alberta, that prioritizes prevention, detox facilities, rural healing centres, court-ordered rehabilitation and private-sector participation. "You put a plan in place for the over-all healing to start."

He criticizes the layout of the sobering centre on Disraeli and says the addictions file "should almost be taken away from Shared Health" because that bureaucracy has an "ass-backwards" approach to mental health, with addicts seeking help facing long waits to get into recovery programs.

19.40 Part 3- Coun. Wyatt sees similarities between the NDP's intention to drop a drug user site into North Logan/Point Douglas, and the controversy 20 years ago about a plan for a hog processing plant in his Transcona ward.

In the present day, he's concerned that city planners aren't doing their job and are "more concerned about how to establish a bike path or how to take Graham Avenue out of circulation for downtown traffic."

Wyatt calls for intervenor funding for the neighborhood groups "to research and double-check our facts and bring their own experts to the table" and there should be a hearing process.

"Zoning has fallen behind but that doesn't prevent the area councillor (Vivian Santos) to start moving motions and raising the issue" instead of "leaving it at the Province... she can get a legal opinion on behalf of the residents to challenge that."

"There's nothing preventing a member of Executive Policy Committee like Vivian Santos, or the Mayor, from sending this off to the Director of Planning Hazel Borys and asking her to look into this ... they're not blind to what's happening out in the community right now, they can read the same newspapers I'm reading."

Wyatt added that "there's nothing preventing the residents also from approaching the public service and saying "where are you professionally on this issue. You're the ones who are supposed to be looking over the whole zoning regimen of the city."""It comes down to political courage and the willingness to represent your community," Wyatt asserts.

"I think the resident's concerns are legitimate, that they should be taken seriously, and the local representatives - at every level of government - should be working with them to address their concerns."

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Today in the Winnipeg Sun - Coun. Russ Wyatt says that Mayor Gillingham and EPC iced a proposed bylaw to restrict protest demonstrations that harass community groups and facilities "to save their own skin."

https://www.winnipegsun.com/opinion/gold-wyatt-accuses-epc-of-self-preservation-in-by-law-vote/article_6950e52b-8241-49cb-9ad5-ec207e527c63.html