Winnipeg Free Press

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Staff tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at 1:25 a.m. Koltusky’s death sparked a provincial court inquest, as is legislatively required when a person dies in police or correctional custody in Manitoba. The inquest was held in front of senior provin- cial court Judge Donald Slough in July. Provincial court judges have no jurisdiction over federal institutions. They have no authority to make formal recommendations for changes to prison policies and procedures that would prevent similar deaths in the future, as is typical of in- quests. They can make observations about defi- ciencies in the system’s operation. Slough said he agreed with the Correctional Service of Canada’s review, which found no pro- cedural errors in the lead-up to Koltusky’s death. “The evidence establishes that everyone who dealt with Timothy Koltusky over the last months and days of his life found him to be forward think- ing, engaged in institutional programming and work, moving forward with his life,” Slough wrote in a report on the inquest released Tuesday. “Based on the evidence presented at this in- quest, I find that Timothy Koltusky’s death, while tragic, was not preventable.” Despite a history of self-harm and diagnosed mental disorders — in addition to being bullied within the institution because he was a sex offend- er — Koltusky displayed no warning signs he was suicidal, Slough found. Prison officials would have considered his his- tory of self-harm in determining his placement in the prison. He was held in protective custody, which included ex-gang members and sex offend- ers. Koltusky was a “known high-profile sexual offender. As such, he would be a target for vio- lence and bullying,” Slough said. The only unit at the prison that was more re- strictive at the time was the segregation unit, which saw inmates placed in essential solitary confinement for extended periods. The federal government banned the use of soli- tary confinement in prisons later in 2019. Today, isolated inmates are placed in structured inter- vention units and must be granted four hours a day outside their cells, including two hours of “meaningful human contact.” The report noted Koltusky told a psychologist about two months before he took his own life that he was anxious over threats and violence from others in the protective custody unit. He told the psycholo- gist “certain individuals make my life a living hell.” The inquest heard that such a disclosure would not trigger a transfer to another unit, unless Kol- tusky requested it, which he did not. The only other unit for him would have been solitary. “There is no way of knowing what was going on in Timothy Koltusky’s mind, but I would note that at that time a transfer to another unit with- in Stony Mountain Institution would have meant transfer to the administrative segregation unit,” Slough said. “Given the conditions in that unit … that transfer would amount to trading one living hell for another.” Slough noted there was no evidence of further bullying in the months before his death, so it’s dif- ficult to determine what role the issue played in his suicide. Koltusky, who was born Kevin Scott Steppan and later changed his name, committed violent sex assaults on two sex-trade workers in Winni- peg’s downtown in August 2005. He was convicted five years later and given an eight-year sentence and a 10-year long-term of- fender order. Most of Koltusky’s eight years con- sisted of time served. He repeatedly breached the long-term order, which would see him sent back to various prisons frequently during the 2010s, in- cluding his final stint. erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca ERIK PINDERA Tory MLA blames NDP for empty care home beds A STAFF shortage at a southern Manitoba care home has led to beds being empty even as people are in desperate need of a placement. Tory MLA Josh Guenter said the Emerson Health Centre, a care home in his Borderland constituency, has eight beds that can’t be filled owing to a lack of staff. “We’ve got families who are trying to get their loved ones into the Emerson personal care home. We’ve been advocating for them for quite some time now, and there’s just been no movement,” Guenter said Tuesday. The facility has openings for six care aides and five registered nurses, as per the job site for Southern Health, which oversees operation of the public care home. It has 20 beds, which means the home has a near-50 per cent va- cancy rate. “You’ve got some of these individuals or people who have donated and contributed to- wards the care home over the years, and now they’re at the point where they’re ready to move in and they’re being told they can’t come in because of the vacancies,” Guenter said. Southern Health issued an email statement Tuesday that failed to answer questions about the staffing shortage in Emerson. In December, the Free Press investigated widespread staffing deficiencies that result in care home beds being unused. For example, two sections of Boyne Lodge Personal Care Home in Carman were closed due to the lack of staff, Southern Health told the Free Press at the time. It didn’t specify how many beds were empty. The Carman home has 105 beds — 79 in a new, main facility, and 26 in older and renovat- ed units. Applicants waiting for a bed in Emerson are being staged in hospitals in Altona and Morris, forcing loved ones to make the lengthy drive to visit, Guenter said. “The NDP is allowing this issue to go on and is allowing this Emerson personal care home to die of neglect, which is absolutely wrong,” he said. Guenter accused the NDP of axing programs instituted by the former Progressive Conserv- ative government to prop up staffing levels, in- cluding a recruitment drive in the Philippines. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara shot back Tuesday, by saying the PC MLA was silent while his former colleagues cut care home staff and beds. “He sat in that caucus for years beside health ministers who cut health care in his own com- munity, closed personal care home beds, fired nurses, froze the wages of health-care aids in rural Manitoba, and he’s never apologized for that. Now all he’s trying to do is deflect and still not take responsibility for the damage,” the health minister said. Rural and northern communities have high- er vacancy rates due to the smaller pool of trained professionals, said Sue Vovchuk, the executive director of the Long Term and Con- tinuing Care Association of Manitoba. The population is getting older and the gov- ernment must continue to work with inter- nationally educated nurses to fast-track their credentials as well as provide incentives to nurses to work in smaller communities, Vov- chuk said, “We are trying to get a proactive look on that, a proactive approach, but it’s a slow burn,” she said. Statistics Canada has reported that in the third quarter of 2023, there were nearly 34,000 staffing vacancies in long-term care homes and residential care facilities across Canada. Manitoba issued a request for proposals for nursing agencies, which closed on Monday. The province will soon begin working with the private sector to regulate agency nurses while fulfilling the election promise to hire 1,000 health-care workers, Asagwara said. As of September, the NDP government hired 873 net new health workers, including many personal care home staff. The health minister did not have updated fig- ures Tuesday but said the government would soon share news about recruitment and reten- tion efforts. Southern Health’s recruitment work has in- cluded relocation and return of service incen- tives, paid education for uncertified workers and the offering of courses in the community, an unnamed spokesperson said Tuesday. The region is advertising on local and regional job sites, recruiting at career fairs, colleges, universities, and high schools and has had success through student placements from Indigenous Health Internship programs, the emailed statement said. nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca NICOLE BUFFIE Timothy Koltusky ;