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This article was published 17/4/2018 (889 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister rejected calls for Manitoba to open a safe-injection site, but promised his government will soon announce proactive ways to deal with the opioid crisis.

Pallister clashed with NDP Leader Wab Kinew in question period Tuesday, with each saying he is relying on experts to back his position against and for a supervised drug-injection site.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister in Question Period Tuesday.

"I don't accept the premise of expertise on the part of the member (Kinew)," said Pallister, who did not name his experts and did not talk with media after question period.

The premier said he has concerns around supervision and safety, and argued the NDP had 17 years in government to open such sites.

"No action taken by the previous government at all," Pallister said.

Kinew cited a Canadian Mental Health Association report released Tuesday that advocates supervised, safe-consumption sites to deal with drug addiction.

"It's there in black and white: safe-injection sites save lives, yet we have a premier saying no. It is a life-and-death issue. Why won't the premier get onside with the experts?" Kinew said.

In a later scrum, Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen said safe-injection sites are a matter of putting scarce money towards whatever services will help the greatest number of people.

"We'll continue to use an evidence-based approach. If you have a limited amount of funds, you have to look at what will help the most number of people possible," he said, noting more than 70 per cent of people who overdose do so in their own homes.

Goertzen said he has heard different numbers on what a safe-injection site would potentially cost.

Kinew countered it would not be very costly to open a space similar to the Main Street Project, or to put a safe-injection site within an existing community health agency.

"You could put one in an existing location for a few hundred grand a year," Kinew said. "Yet again, we see the Pallister government putting dollars and cents ahead of health care."

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca