Concerns over open drug use and safety in Winnipeg's West End

Añadido: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Cindy Gilroy, city counselor for the Daniel McIntyre Ward. She says the neighborhood needs more support to address the safety concerns and she's been waiting for us patiently on Zoom.

[00:00:08]Hi there. Good morning.

[00:00:10]>> Good morning. Thanks for having me here today.

[00:00:12]>> Thanks for being with us. Um, so what have you been hearing uh from businesses who have these, you know, real safety concerns? What have they been telling you?

[00:00:20]>> Businesses are very concerned. And it's not only impacting, you know, customers coming in, but being able to retain staff and and so I know that the staffing concern is also an issue for many businesses. And we're also talking about local schools. Uh one of the concerns that you're talking about is along uh Portage, Sherbrook, and Maryland. And you know, Gordon Bell School is right there. and many of these children have to walk by the uh open drug use or or violence that that is occurring. So, it's definitely a huge concern in the community uh not only for businesses but also for many residents in the community.

[00:01:02]>> Uh where are specifically some of the areas where people are seeing uh you know the open uh selling of drugs and such? Is that is it that area you were just talking about? Yeah, I'm also having issues along Sergeant Avenue um and really close to Bernal. So, there's a lot of businesses that are really impacted by, you know, it it is it is addiction and mental health that's driving this. And so a lot of people that are just on the streets, they're um in the corridors of people's buildings using open drug use, uh selling, purchasing drugs, and of course, when all that takes place, violence does erupt, and it's quite concerning for the area businesses and residents in the community.

[00:01:49]>> Um how have things changed uh in your view? Why do you think there might be more safety concerns now in the West End? And I know you've alluded already to, you know, drug use and and social problems increasing. Um, but but is it I I guess I should ask how it's changed in terms of are is it is it more visible uh or is it coming into the businesses or maybe in as you said around the schools maybe in a more visible way?

[00:02:14]>> Oh yes, it's definitely more invisible.

[00:02:16]We got to remember that uh we talk a lot about housing, but what we're not talking about is the addiction uh piece that we have to really focus on. Housing isn't going to solve the problems.

[00:02:28]People can still be housed, but they're still participating in this activity.

[00:02:32]And and we do see that that some people are housed, but yet they're congregating outside, still doing these activities.

[00:02:40]And I think there's been a real push to move people out of our downtown. And and for us for us in our community, we do feel like we're still part of the downtown, especially that area around Portage and Sherbrook and uh Sergeant and Bernell. We still feel part of that that downtown, but uh according to the city, our downtown really ends um um kind of at Bernell uh Isabel Bernell uh sorry, Isabelle and um and Balmoral. So for us, the big push to move people out of the the downtown area, it just moves people along. And then we're not putting the right supports in place in these other outlining communities. Mine won't be the only one. We'll be seeing this issue in Elmwood and and St. B and um uh St. uh I think that um Norway Flats, Norwood Flats is having issues. So this this just moves the problem along. So, we're not really coming up with some solutions on how we're going to manage this uh while we deal with the housing shortage, while we deal with the addiction uh supports that are really needed to to to deal with the what we're seeing on the streets.

[00:03:50]>> Uh you've called for the the city to temporarily remove some bus shelters in the area. Why do you think that would help? And since it's temporary, why do you think that would help in the short term? I guess >> you know what, I do support the businesses on that. Like I mean we don't want to remove bus shelters, but it is a temporary measure that could help the congregation in and around that area, especially around Gordon Bell High School where kids are walking to school.

[00:04:13]And if people are not using the bus shelters for what they're supposed to be used for, there's no reason to have them, right? We of course we want transit users to use them, but as fast as we move people on out of those shelters, they're just moving right back in. So the city cannot even keep up with the demand that we're seeing on that corner. So something to help with the businesses and the school's concern would just be temporary removing them until we come up with other solutions.

[00:04:44]And as governments, we do have to learn to pivot. This wouldn't be something I would have done a couple years ago, but you know, now there it's just such an issue. we might have to look at addressing issues like this differently than maybe h we have in the past. It's interesting uh councelor Gilroy because you're mentioning you know other neighborhoods right you're talking about Norwood Flats I think uh we did a show in Osborne Village uh now this is two years on and they have had changes there since since then but similar things businesses were saying we can't get staff they were also saying uh that some of the uh folks uh from that were on the street were kind of coming in and some of them were violent and they didn't have staff that could deal with that I mean so things are getting very real you know on the ground sort of people were nervous uh and residents saying just more activity on the street and such Uh but they have seemed to have gone in a different direction and they're they're slowly I think changing but there have been I think things like uh police patrols added. I think there's a unit right in Osborne Village. So what would work in your ward? Does some of the solutions from there translate?

[00:05:45]Absolutely. We do need more police presence. Uh we do need more patrols uh out on the streets and we need governments to uh really act. I think a big concern that I have is is, you know, we we talk about, you know, the reduction of crime rates and and uh safety issues we have in the city. But you got to remember that a large portion of my community, they just are not reporting. So that data is not correct.

[00:06:12]If people are not reporting, that doesn't mean things are safer or less violent. It it just means that there's people maybe not reporting that data.

[00:06:20]So, we also got to make sure that we're listening to when people are bringing things forward that that our governments are listening to them and and things in our area that could really help improve is getting rid of some of these uh vacant buildings that you know um um you know, people with addictions are moving into. Um there's some that should be torn down. They should have been torn down yesterday after like fire. It should be just gotten rid of. So, there are certain things that we could be doing to make major improvements in these areas where we're we're seeing um trouble and a big one would be uh more policing presence and not just those that are maybe in the car, but also uh those walking the beat like we see in the downtown.

[00:07:04]>> Yeah. And what about just last what about the supports that you're alluding to? Because um one of the supports in the downtown area though I know you you were kind of outside of that. You're talking west even pushing into St. names a bit, but uh in the downtown area, I mean, the the library changed in terms of their support for people and such, but are you talking about could you use in the West End more really direct uh addiction support since that's been raised or what kinds of supports on social supports are you looking for to be located in your community?

[00:07:31]>> Yeah. Well, you know what addiction supports is h has to be a big piece of the housing model because we do know that people are are some of them are being housed, right? but the the behavior does not go away and so that keeps them very hard to house. So addiction supports and we also have to make sure that we're not putting people all into one community. We have to make sure that we um you know communities need to be diverse all over the city.

[00:07:59]And so we we we need to make sure that when we're placing people, they're not all in one community that are really struggling cuz it just defeats the purpose of getting the addiction and help and support uh when those are really struggling to be around others that are struggling too, right? So we need to look at and evaluate uh our addiction and mental health supports for sure.

[00:08:21]>> We'll leave it there this morning.

[00:08:22]Councelor Gilroy, thank you for your time.

[00:08:24]>> Thank you for having me.