Rural Manitoba communities plead with province for help cleaning up used needles

When Rayna Badowski arrives at her Swan River, Man., dance studio, she grabs a shovel to scoop used needles from the front door so students can enter safely.

In 20 years of operation, she's never had to worry about sharps outside the Swan School of Dance until recently. Now, they're a common sight in her small western Manitoba town, she says.

"It seems like they're being handed out, but it's nobody's job to clean them up," Badowski said. "It would be nice if it was safe for everybody to be here, especially kids coming to dance class."

Mayor Lance Jacobson says more than 500,000 needles have been handed out over the past year in the town, which has about 4,000 people, and the surrounding area.

While Prairie Mountain Health, the regional health authority, and the non-profit Manitoba Harm Reduction have been distributing sharps and other supplies for about 10 years, Jacobson says the town is now seeing an unprecedented number of discarded syringes.

"It's not working," said Jacobson. "It's costing the taxpayers a lot of money … if it's cleanup or even the crimes that come along with that."

The town recently passed a resolution calling for an end to distribution of syringes within the town by any organization, and for work on figuring out a cleanup.

Jacobson said in a perfect world, he would like to see needle distribution end entirely, with a focus instead on rehabilitation programs.

The neighbouring municipality of Swan Valley West also passed a bylaw limiting harm reduction operations, restricting activities that aren't approved and making organizations that hand out supplies responsible for cleanup costs. Breaking the rules can be punished by a fine of $1,000 per day, per location.

Reeve Bill Gade doesn't think anybody is truly against the practice of harm reduction, but thinks changes are needed.

"If Tim Hortons had thousands of coffee cups laying on the ground, we'd be talking to Tim Hortons about what's gone wrong, if they're the only coffee cup out there. It's the same thing with needles," Gade said.

He and Jacobson want to work with the regional health authority, the province and others to come up with a plan that would ease cleanup costs for municipalities.

Swan River bylaw enforcement officer Derrick Piwish says he sees the costs of that cleanup personally. He gets up to six calls a day about needles in parks, playgrounds and on the sidewalk.  

"Sometimes you'll go to pick up a dog … and you'll have to end up retrieving needles," Piwish said.