An ambulance drives past Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg on Thursday, June 15, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/David Lipnowski)
WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government has inked a contract with a Toronto company to provide security screening using artificial intelligence at the province’s largest hospital.
Xtract One Technologies won the bid to install its weapons-detection system at Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg and HSC’s children’s emergency department, operated by Shared Health.
“Healthcare environments today face two security challenges: providing top-tier security while ensuring that both patients and caregivers feel safe and comfortable,” said Peter Evans, CEO of Xtract One, in a release.
“This is a trend we’re seeing across the healthcare sector, where providers are actively looking for solutions to these growing challenges, and we welcome the opportunity to play a role in securing health facility environments.”
The technology will be used at three HSC Winnipeg key entrances: the adult and children’s emergency departments and the Crisis Response Centre.
In recent years, Winnipeg hospitals have faced several incidents involving weapons, prompting concerns about staff and patient safety. Notably, in July 2019, a man pulled a gun on security guards while being escorted out of the Children’s Hospital at the Health Sciences Centre. More recently, in December 2024, a shooting at Thompson General Hospital raised further safety concerns.
Xtract One says the AI-powered system, called Gateway, is designed specifically for scanning individuals and their belongings, allowing seamless passage through checkpoints and reducing the need for separate bag searches.
According to the company, “Gateway unobtrusively scans individuals, their pockets, their bags and backpacks for potential mass casualty weapons while distinguishing harmless personal items like laptops, tablets, three-ring binders, notebooks, eyeglass cases, keys, and phones, streamlining access into and out of facilities without disrupting the flow of movement.”
During a separate health-care announcement on Friday at St. Boniface Hospital, the province highlighted it has funded 126 institutional safety officer (ISO) positions, with 96 already working at facilities throughout Manitoba. In addition, the government is employing Long Plain First Nation safety officers at Portage District General Hospital in a similar fashion to ISOs at other facilities.
