MP Ouellette says 800 Adele is ideal for proposed meth detox facility

The Member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre has said he's willing to go to bat with his federal counterparts to help restore an existing health care facility in his riding to public use, and take advantage of its existing capacity for 10 or more meth stabilization and detox beds and ample room to housing other services, to help save lives sooner.

 Robert-Falcon Ouellette swung his support behind a drug stabilization unit proposal that started to evolve after my profiles of the success of Morberg House, a residential meth treatment program initiated by St. Boniface Street Links. 

http://tgcts.blogspot.com/2019/07/bonus-video-meth-program-and-homeless.html

Those stories led to the director, Marion Willis, being invited to see the amenities of the now-empty building at 800 Adele, about 6 blocks from the Health Sciences Centre. 

This past winter the Progressive Conservative government decided to terminate a 20 year contract with the building owners, and ordered the social services agency operating inside to pack up and leave. That dispute is now headed to court, leaving the Class A facility in limbo.

Willis went to the site and determined the facility could be "a centre of excellence for meth treatment and education" with Morberg House working in conjunction with other local addiction services, including the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and the Main Street Project.    

"People know of the issues that we're facing, the security issues and I was talking about that with the West End Biz, the Downtown Biz, we were talking about security issues today, about how we can work together", Ouellette said Friday outside of 800 Adele. 

"But this could be one of the arrows - among many others that we could be using -  in order to get more people into treatment. Because we know there is a lack of beds we could actually be making sure this place is filled up so people can obtain the treatment that they need ... the treatment that leads to long term success."

"Obviously we need partners at the provincial level to do that", the Liberal MP said, "and I'm willing and ready to have discussions with the Health Minister at the Federal level to see what we can do to get more dollars". 

In conjunction with a provincial plan that could coordinate aspects like "police, the detox ... harm reduction with needles (being a problem) and also the education component ... there's a lot going on and this is going to be part of it."

 Ouellette was the federal appointee to a tripartate Illicit Drug Task Force this winter that made over twenty recommendations, many of which sought to address methamphetamine use, in addition to opioids and other illicit drugs. The task force reported the need for more medical withdrawal and detoxification centres is immediate.

Statistics from the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba said that between 2014 and 2017, the number of meth users rose 48% among youths and 104% among adults. The average age of a youth using meth is 16 and 81% of their reported cases are girls. Ouellette noted in our interview that AFM "has very long wait times, much longer than a what we have in other parts of the country"

He was a member of the Commons Standing Committee on Health when they met with recovering meth addicts at Morberg House in April and heard firsthand accounts of the depths of the meth crisis and the difficult path from despair to recovery. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/mps-health-committee-methamphetamine-winnipeg-1.5081706

In Committee, Ouelette remarked  "In Winnipeg we know we have a lot of issues in the health care department, the emergency wards, people who are in addictions and security issues for staff who are being hurt." 

This week the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives announced a plan to spend up to $7M at Health Sciences Centre "to create 12 new treatment and waiting spaces for people addicted to methamphetamines if the party is re-elected next month." That plan would specifically deliver patients to HSC presenting the dangerous effects of meth psychosis that Ouellette described. 

Meanwhile, the government will continue to pay approx. $35,000 in rent for 800 Adele while the secure detox unit sits unused, resulting in a dollar-for-value quotient of zero for taxpayers.

The NDP has proposed grouping various addiction treatment facilities near Main St. and Logan Ave. for approx. $4.5M in operating and capital costs.

Earlier in August Manitoba Liberal leader Dougald Lamont was first within the political class to talk about finding a way to reopen the mothballed secure bed units and get 800 Adele into the treatment and recovery regime. 

 http://tgcts.blogspot.com/2019/08/lamont-blasts-pallister-govt-for-fudged.html  

At an election town hall organized by Street Links last week Willis beseeched the candidates to look beyond the legal dispute the government has provoked with the building's owners. 

"What this city needs most has been sitting since February empty, locked up, within walking distance of Health Sciences Centre."

(Video from the panel is at 

 http://wpgwatchdog.blogspot.com/2019/08/meth-detox-proposal-for-800-adele-gets.html)

In response, Lamont reiterated his belief that "If it's suitable, that should be the place it goes." 

NDP representative Laurissa Sims assured the audience her leader Wab Kinew would welcome a conversation about the functionality and potential use of 800 Adele. 

Green Party leader James Beddome, going head to head with Kinew for the seat in Fort Rouge, stated "it makes complete sense to put a facility there." and asked a resonating question: 

"We're in a crisis so why aren't we doing something?"

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Reyes Working New Riding To Keep Legislature Seat; Weekend Roundup Of Pronouncements

Coming from a military and small business background, Jon Reyes says he's used to putting in the hard work and long hours needed in seeking re-election to the Manitoba Legislature, as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Waverley. 

I caught up to Reyes at the opening of his campaign office and in this clip, see his explanation about the make-up of the new riding and how his family experience as immigrants helps him understand the challenges that new Canadians in his riding are dealing with. 

Among election announcements this weekend:

- Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont addressed economic issues as part of a 10 year strategic infrastructure plan "to prioritize urgent and high-return-on-investment infrastructure projects. The party promised to invest on average $1.6-billion per year for ten years. 

"This $16 billion investment would see a return of almost $21 billion to Manitoba during that time frame." 

Included will be a study of rail relocation / rationalization for the City of Winnipeg, and costs related to linking it with CentrePort, as well as the possibility of creating a commuter / light rail system on the vacated tracks. The study should cost an estimated $3-million. 

Seeking to expand it's presence in the Assembly beyond the Party status minimum of 4 seats, the Liberals "will also apply previously announced “buy local” and local procurement policies to the projects and ensure there is a level playing field so local companies can apply."

- The New Democratic Party attacked PC proposals that focused largely on women's health issues and services, claiming that Premier Brian Pallister "Refused to let the Health Minister answer questions about women’s reproductive health for three years" while closing programs for lactating mothers, mature women, and cutting funding to Cancer Care Manitoba

- Reye's campaign office roommate Sarah Guillemard said a re-elected PC government "will invest $3.4 million per year to implement initiatives that help all Manitobans". 

The promises include enhanced mental health and specialized trauma counselling, establishing a six seat Bachelor of Midwifery program at the University of  Manitoba, and reducing wait times "for Manitobans seeking treatment for eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating."

- Not in the realm of an announcement, but a first-time Green Party candidate messaged me and related the following: 

"You know what's a very interesting thing ... hearing disaffected conservative voters tell me they're looking for options and voting Green this year." 

Is Green going to be the new "parked my vote" space in 2019?

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Manitoba Leaders Jockey For Health Care Voters; Seven Oaks ER Closure Not So Heated, Says Tory Hopeful

With a bit of a target on his back, Liberal leader Dougald Lamont matched the governing PC's and opposition NDP in holding a morning press announcement Thursday in the sunny beauty of summery St. Boniface. 

After both parties launched hospital/health care promises in front of his riding's hospital on Wednesday, Lamont countered the next day with some coherent policy ideas to improve mental health services in the province. 

The groundwork has been laid over the past 10 years or so by Dr. Jon Gerrard when he was leader, and Lamont smartly took up the cause. 

One of the notable aspects is to include child (under 18) mental health assessment costs to flag and treat behavioral and learning disabilities as a listed service under Medicare. The 2-3 year wait time for kids to get evaluated in unacceptable and most often puts kids behind their peers permanently. Just ask any school librarian in rural and remote Manitoba, if there are any still being funded. 

Lamont also pledged an improved "access to psychological therapist program", based on a UK model. These are both great ideas, notwithstanding costs, staffing, and the other input factors. Here's the video clip:

The NDP started kicking at Lamont's door by holding the first presser in the riding this week, in LaVerendrye Park, across Tache St. from St Bonifice Hospital. But the pitch handed leader Wab Kinew by the orange braintrust was far beneath the weightier expectations of voters and pundits when it comes to the subject of health care priorities. 

Relieving the cost of parking near and at hospitals - a genuine issue in Winnipeg - is still only a bantamweight problem in the big picture and came off as an underwhelming use of the media's attention, especially with Premier Brian Pallister scheduled for the same park withi the hour. The cost of parking, and overtime tickets, when families are stressed out would be a decent part of package of "Five Ways The NDP Will Halt You Being Ripped Off", and the NDP should have found some other gouging issues of fees or permits or fines to champion with it. 

At 10 AM that same day, the Blue Crew set up a podium for Pallister to go big, with a $2B over 4 years spending program highlighted by a new ER for the highly stressed St. Boniface Hospital. 

New personal care home beds, improved diagnostic testing equipment, and more generous grants to hospitals and doctor billings was also on the menu. The media probed how much of the pledge was truly new provincial money compared to incoming increases in federal health care dollars, but Pallister refuted the theory, claiming the feds percentage was based on them having lowering the base amount in the first place, so they were just playing catch-up at a laggardly pace. 

Last weekend, I dropped by the opening of a PC campaign office for a parachute candidate in the new riding of McPhillips, trying to hold onto a seat with the governing Conservatives. 

Shannon Martin has migrated his campaigning machine from Morris to a unique hybrid riding with a chunk of city (mostly Garden City) and an exurban northern half, with common priorities for both of trust and taxation. 

The recent closure of the ER at the Seven Oaks Hospital has been controversial but Martin says that at the doorstep, while "the change has come up ... once you direct them the website, understanding urgent vs emergency ... (we're) ensuring the wait lists have been dealt with", allowing the "significant transition has not been without its stress", before taking a shot at the contradictory positions of Kinew and his erstwhile candidate in Fort Garry, Mark Wasyliw, about the conversion of the ER at the Victoria Hospital. Here's the video: 

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