Don’t build fences, spend money on mental health

The last time I wrote about the ridiculousness, futility and cost of governments wasting millions of dollars installing suicide fences on bridges, there was an interesting juxtaposition between the reaction to the column from bureaucrats and the public.

Bureaucratic supporters of the fences, in particular one medical health officer, sneeringly wrote to smear me, falsely accusing me of not caring about people with mental health problems, rather than arguing against the points I made.

The public — as represented by the highly unscientific thumbs up/ thumb down feature at the bottom of the column — supported my view 10 to one against those who opposed it.

So what was my thought crime? Suggesting that spending $3.5 million for suicide fencing on the Burrard Bridge to possibly save the 0.8 suicide victims on that bridge each year was a poor use of public funds.

As I pointed out, the money would be better spent on mental health care, especially since it’s clear that someone prevented from jumping off the Burrard Bridge who really wanted to die would simply find another bridge or high place from which to fling themselves.

That view seemed logical to me, and apparently to readers, but it was clearly lost on the bureaucrats, who daily find new ways to waste public dollars.

To date, suicide fences have been installed on the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge at a cost of $10 million, the Golden Ears Bridge, for which I don’t have the cost, and the Burrard Bridge. As Postmedia reporter Jennifer Saltman noted in a story last week, a coroner’s report nearly 10 years ago called for fences to be installed on five Metro Vancouver bridges — the two above in addition to the Granville, Lions Gate and Pattullo bridges. Provincial officials say the barriers can’t be added to the Lions Gate, Port Mann or Alex Fraser bridges because the bridges can’t handle the wind load the fences would impose on the structures.

Still, Delta Police Chief Neil Dubord is calling for anti-suicide barriers on the Alex Fraser while New Westminster Police Chief Dave Jones wants barriers installed on the span that will eventually replace the Pattullo Bridge.

Jones complained that problems with troubled persons on the Pattullo took up a lot of time for police, although I doubt suicide barriers would lessen that. They would just move the suicidal person somewhere else and police would still be called.

Neither mentioned the costs of suicide fences on their bridges, not that it’s within their jurisdiction. But if they cost $10 million on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge, which is nearly 1.3 kilometres long (about $7.7 million per kilometre), one can imagine that the Alex Fraser (2.5 kilometres) and the Pattullo (1.2 kilometres) would cost something like $28 million, all things being equal. That’s assuming some sort of barrier could be put on the Alex Fraser.

If we do what the police chiefs want, the public will have spent well more than $42 million on suicide barriers to cover five bridges.

I understand the tragedy of suicide. As a reporter, several times I’ve witnessed the gory results of people throwing themselves to their deaths from great heights. A few years ago our family even lost a good friend who killed himself by jumping off the Granville Bridge after years of struggling with depression.

But I don’t believe for a second that a barrier on that bridge would have stopped him from ending his life. He was a smart guy who would have simply found somewhere else to end his life, or used another method. Those motivated to kill themselves will eventually do it.

The millions of dollars being spent on these barriers — which diminish the appearance of these bridges — would be far better spent on mental health services, which have been desperately underfunded in B.C. for decades.