Cost to clean needles from Winnipeg parks could cost up to $262K

Central Park in inner city Winnipeg on Oct. 29, 2024. (Jeff Keele/CTV News Winnipeg)

A new report says the city could hire staff to inspect inner city parks and playgrounds for needles and knives, but any plans would come with a price tag.

Area daycares who use Central Park raised concerns to Coun. Cindy Gilroy about a growing number of discarded weapons and needles on the ground.

In February, Gilroy asked the city's public service for a plan to clean up these dangerous items from inner city parks.

"You know they're finding all these things in parks and they're not safe for the kids to play at," said Gilroy.

The public service has released a report, it said to focus on 32 locations, mostly parks and playgrounds, two options could be explored.

Option one would cost $193,704 to hire two crews to inspect the parks between April and October. The second option would cost $262,884 to have one crew work year round, the other April to October.

But Gilroy is disappointed with the report. She’s worried this will be a hard sell.

She questions if all the parks need to be monitored, and wants options where community groups could step in to help, to cut down on staff and operating costs.

"If we're going to be creating another big bureaucracy or a lot more staff for the work that we don't need, it's going to be hard for me to get that through at council," said Gilroy.

It appears Gilroy has a reason to be concerned about funding.

Community Services Committee Chair Vivian Santos said she plans on receiving the report as information only, meaning neither option will be acted on, at least not yet.

Santos said the city’s budget is already stretched thin and adds they need provincial health officials to step up.

"We really need to have Manitoba health and harm reduction people at the table for a long-term solution to keep needles out of public spaces," said Santos.

The options are set to be discussed at the community services committee next week.