Skip to main content

The situation at 101 Marion St

 Friday May 28, I asked the Minister of Families during Estimates, about concerns that have been raised with respect to the Manitoba Housing unit at 101 Marion St. 

My question and the Minister's response are below (from Hansard).

101 Marion St

Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): To the minister, there's been a concern raised in relationship to Manitoba Housing and specifically with respect to the situation at One O One Marion. This was originally 55-plus housing, but there are increasingly younger people in the building.

      I'm informed that there are instances where younger residents are letting non-residents into the building and they are breaking into apartments, stealing property, making conditions unsafe for elderly residents; indeed, that there may be gangs and  drug dealers who've taken up residence in the building, as well as problems with cockroach infec­tions.

      Three suggestions have been put forward for the minister: (1) to triage homeless individuals to ensure that they are fit for One O One Marion and to ensure that they have the supports at One O One Marion before considering housing them there, where there are so many who are  seniors who are potentially at risk; (2) to have effective security on the premises–currently, it seems that security guards are limited in what they can do to provide security; and (3) have enhanced supports for seniors and a plan to assist with these problems of insect infestations.

Ms. Squires: I can appreciate that my friend from River Heights only has a few minutes, so I'll try to answer his question as quickly as possible.

      And I also do want to acknowledge that he's provided some solutions in his question, and I look forward to implementing his solutions and working with him on all these matters that are brought to his attention. And I appreciate whenever anybody presents potential solutions to the challenges that their constituents are facing or that they're hearing throughout the province of Manitoba.

      So in regards to the One O One Marion site, I can inform the member that we have increased nightly security from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. All residents, we have confirmed, are 55-plus, and we've recently installed new four-by-four cameras into the building.

      Now, understanding that this–there still may be challenges, I'm certainly willing and my door is always open to the member for River Heights. If he's got further issues that he's hearing about that he wants to bring to my attention, he can certainly do that at any time.

      I do just want to take a quick moment to say that we do recognize that there are security challenges in some of our Manitoba Housing units, and that is why this year we made a $4.4-million investment. It was the largest historical investment in security in one particular year ever, and we will continue to make those investments until we are able to say that all of our residents living in Manitoba housing are living in safe housing units.

      And I do want to acknowledge that we did just get the–a particular letter from the member for River Heights and are certainly investigating any instances of unauthorized visitors attending a building, and any breaches in our policy are being investigated right now. And I'll provide all that in writing for the member for River Heights.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dougald Lamont speaks at Meth Forum last night to present positive ideas to address the epidemic, while exposing the lack of action by the Pallister Conservatives

Last night at the Notre Dame Recreation Centre in St. Boniface, at an Election Forum on the Meth Crisis in Manitoba, Dougald Lamont spoke eloquently about the severity of the meth epidemic and described the Liberal plan to address it.  The Liberal Plan will make sure that there is a single province-wide phone number for people, or friends of people, who need help dealing with meth to call (as there is in Alberta) and that there will be rapid access to a seamless series of steps - stabilization, detoxification, treatment, extended supportive housing etc so that people with meth addiction can be helped well and effectively and so that they can rebuild their lives.  The Liberal meth plan will be helped by our approach to mental health (putting psychological therapies under medicare), and to poverty (providing better support).  It will also be helped by our vigorous efforts to help young people understand the problems with meth in our education system and to provide alternative positive

Manitoba Liberal accomplishments

  Examples of Manitoba Liberal accomplishments in the last three years Ensured that 2,000 Manitoba fishers were able to earn a living in 2020   (To see the full story click on this link ). Introduced a bill that includes retired teachers on the Pension Investment Board which governs their pension investments. Introduced amendments to ensure school aged children are included in childcare and early childhood education plans moving forward. Called for improvements in the management of the COVID pandemic: ·          We called for attention to personal care homes even before there was a single case in a personal care home. ·            We called for a rapid response team to address outbreaks in personal care homes months before the PCs acted.  ·          We called for a science-based approach to preparing schools to   improve ventilation and humidity long before the PCs acted. Helped hundreds of individuals with issues during the pandemic including those on social assistance

The Indigenous Science Conference in Winnipeg June 14-16

  June 14 to 16, I spent three days at the Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference.  It was very worthwhile.   Speaker after speaker talked of the benefits of using both western or mainstream science and Indigenous science.  There is much we can learn from both approaches.   With me above is Myrle Ballard, one of the principal organizers of the conference.  Myrle Ballard, from Lake St. Martin in Manitoba, worked closely with Roger Dube a professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, and many others to make this conference, the first of its kind, a success.  As Roger Dube, Mohawk and Abenaki, a physicist, commented "My feeling is that the fusion of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science methodology should rapidly lead the researchers to much more holistic solutions to problems."   Dr. Myrle Ballard was the first person from her community to get a PhD.  She is currently a professor at the University of Manitoba and the Director of Indigenous Science