Province to launch 24-hour police presence at HSC

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/09/2025 (261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two Winnipeg police officers will be posted around the clock in the emergency department at Health Sciences Centre to respond to rising levels of violence at the city’s largest hospital, the Free Press has learned.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara is expected to announce the new security measures today.

“A 24-7 police presence will give front-line staff, including nurses, the peace of mind they need to focus on delivering care to their patients,” Asagwara said in a statement.

The minister said the provincially funded police presence and five weapons detection scanners in the main public entrances of HSC — 655 William Ave., 700 William Ave., and 820 Sherbrook St. — will still allow the hospital to be “inclusive and welcoming.”

The NDP government has been under pressure to upgrade security at HSC as incidents of violence — in and around the hospital — have escalated in recent months. The new security measure will cost $2.3 million.

Sources said the new police presence in the ER will also provide a huge boost to street-level policing in the downtown.

Police often complain when they take a volatile person to hospital, some of whom may be suspects in criminal offences, they are forced to wait with them until they can be treated by medical staff and released. This ties up police units for hours and prevents them from responding to other calls.

Sources with first-hand knowledge of the upgraded security plan, who asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak publicly, said health officials believe most of these individuals can be passed off to the officers stationed in the ER, allowing general patrol units to return to regular duties.

The officers in the ER should also be able to respond to any violent incidents reported in or around the HSC, the sources said.

The decision comes amid longstanding concerns about safety at HSC.

Last month, the Manitoba Nurses Union voted 94 per cent in favour of “grey listing” HSC, a measure that advises current and prospective members not to work at a facility because of unsafe or inappropriate conditions.

It marked the first grey listing in nearly 20 years, the last being at Dauphin Regional Health Centre in 2007.

The nurses union, meanwhile, pointed out earlier Monday there were no guarantees a “safe ride” program at the hospital would be safe.

HSC staff and guests who require a safe ride to their vehicles are required to sign a form saying they’re accepting the ride at their own risk.

The waiver forms came to the attention of the union, which has urged Shared Health to increase security measures at the hospital.

The form says passengers “assume and accept all risks” of receiving a safe ride and are “solely responsible for any injury, loss or damage… even if such injury, loss or damage (including death) arises by reason of the negligent acts or omissions of Shared Health.”

A spokesman for Shared Health said the form had been in place for more than three years.

“This is a standard waiver used by organizations to protect against liability and risk,” the spokesman said.

In addition to the safe walk program (in which HSC security staff walk employees to their car, bike or bus stop within the boundaries of the hospital campus), the safe ride program provides employees transportation to their car on within a two-block radius of the campus.

Nurses union president Darlene Jackson said Shared Health may be protecting itself from legal liability with the waiver but can’t claim that it is a “safe ride.”

Jackson said a copy of the safe ride waiver, dated May 2022, first came to the union’s attention two weeks ago. She said a nurse who signed the form was surprised to read it puts the responsibility for safety on the passenger, and brought it to the union’s attention.

Passengers in taxicabs and city buses aren’t required to sign a waiver absolving the cab company or Winnipeg Transit of liability, she noted.

If that was the case, it would deter people from using the service, the Progressive Conservative health critic said.

“That might make somebody think twice before they took that ride,” MLA Kathleen Cook said Monday. “For sure, it wouldn’t seem so safe.”

Requiring hospital staff and guests looking for a safe ride to sign the form and assume any risk is a bad look and must be demoralizing for staff, the member for Roblin said.

“I’m sure that’s something the lawyers have suggested to them, but I think the optics of it are terrible given the very serious concerns that have been brought to light over the last few months around safety at the HSC.”

The HSC grey list will remain in place until the union’s requests are addressed, it said at the time of the vote.

The move came after four women and a teenage girl were sexually assaulted in or around hospital grounds on July 2.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Dan Lett
Columnist

Born and raised in and around Toronto, Dan Lett came to Winnipeg in 1986, less than a year out of journalism school with a lifelong dream to be a newspaper reporter.

   Read full biography

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

In 1997, Carol started at the Free Press working nights as a copy editor. In 2000, she jumped at a chance to return to reporting. In early 2020 — before a global pandemic was declared — she agreed to pitch in, temporarily, at the Free Press legislature bureau. She’s been there ever since.

   Read full biography