Lack of funding stalls plans for long delayed sobering centre in southwestern Manitoba

A new provincial law allowing police to detain intoxicated people for up to 72 hours is renewing concern in Brandon, where a long-promised sobering centre still hasn’t materialized.

Since 2021, city officials and community organizations have been working toward a 24-hour sobering centre after Manitoba Justice committed $2 million in initial funding. The centre was envisioned as a health-focused alternative to police holding cells for people picked up for public intoxication.

Four years later, no facility exists. For now, police can only hold intoxicated people for up to 24 hours because there isn’t a protective care facility designated for 72 hours.

Brandon police Chief Tyler Bates says that limit no longer reflects the realities officers face as substance use-related calls continue to rise.

“There’s definitely a need. There’s persons that are struggling with addiction that we take into care on a daily basis,” Bates said. “We’re seeing a significant increase in terms of the number of people that we’re safeguarding and providing care for.”

The number of intoxicated or drug-affected people brought into custody has surged since paramedics were added to Brandon’s detention centre in the summer 2025.

From July 3 to Nov. 18, 2024, 255 people were held, he said. During the same period in 2025, the number rocketed to 529.

Bates says the 24-hour cap means some people are released before they are fully sober.

“Anytime that you have an individual in your care that you’re trying to safeguard and provide care for when you’re releasing them prior to them being in a sober state, you know that they’re at further risk of potential victimization,” he said.

The Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act extends how long someone who is highly intoxicated by methamphetamines or other long-lasting substances can be detained, raising the limit to 72 hours from the previous 24.

Police are encouraged by a provincial announcement that Brandon and Thompson could also be potential locations for protective care centres, he said.

Now, they’re watching closely as Winnipeg launches its new 20-room facility.

Alternative space needed

Shannon Saltarelli, the city’s community housing and wellness co-ordinator, says both police and justice officials agree cells are not an appropriate setting for people who need to get sober, but there is no alternative in the city of 54,000.

Sobering centres "are better than a drunk tank,” Saltarelli said, “giving them a more safe place to sober up than in an institutional holding cell.”

Plans for Brandon’s sobering centre have stalled largely due to funding problems, she says.

While $2 million was provided for planning, Saltarelli says a purpose-built centre would cost closer to $6 million. The project remains at the architectural design stage, with a significant funding gap.

"We are … essentially criminalizing IPDA [Intoxicated Persons Detention Act] , which is not the direction that we want to be as a community," she said.

Saltarelli says the city is now planning to build the centre in phases, introducing what’s needed most in the community first and adding on as more funding is secured.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett says the initial $2 million was never intended to fully fund construction, but to incubate the project.

The centre will sit adjacent to the John Howard Society’s transitional housing on 16th Street North, and will be owned by the society, though operated by a different organization.

With land secured and planning underway, securing an operator for the centre will help push it past the finish line, Fawcett said.

“There’s a great need,” Fawcett said. “Our teams are stretched, and this would be a huge asset for the community.”

In a prepared statement the office of housing, addictions and homelessness told CBC News it’s currently focused on boosting similar care models in Winnipeg. At the same time it will work with other municipalities when it comes to addictions and mental health.

‘A little bit of a Band-Aid”

Advocates worry the new law undermines the original vision for the centre.

Antoinette Gravel-Ouellette, co-ordinator with Moms Stop the Harm, says expanding detention powers without first delivering promised community-based support risks deepening reliance on incarceration.

“That is not compassionate, that is not care, that is not anything what we talked about doing at all,” she said. “We are a step back, absolutely, because that is criminalizing people for using substances.”

She also warns that forced detention without adequate treatment options could re-traumatize people and increase the overdose risk after release.

“How are we setting people up for success?” she said. “We need many, many, many more wrap-around services before you even look at this.”

Bates agrees a sobering centre is part of breaking the pattern of repeatedly cycling people through police cells.

“It would be nice beyond that Band-Aid solution,” he said. “There was a long-term objective to get them to a better place where addictions … are part of their past as opposed to part of their day-to-day reality.”