Horgan calls for greater action on overdose crisis
With deaths from illicit drug overdoses continuing to climb in the Lower Mainland, NDP Leader John Horgan said Thursday that the B.C. Liberals aren’t doing enough to mitigate the crisis.
He made his remarks after making a campaign stop at Vancouver’s No. 11 fire hall, where firefighters said the crisis is out of control and more funding is needed immediately to help front-line workers, and for addiction treatment.
“The provincial government declared a public-health emergency over a year ago, and the situation has gotten worse. It strikes me we are not doing enough to address this — and I want to make changes,” said Horgan. “We need to take decisive action.”
Although the issue was raised in the televised leaders’ debate last week, the overdose crisis, which has killed more than 1,300 people since 2016, hasn’t received much attention during the election campaign. It has been overshadowed by jobs and the economy, and housing and affordability.
The main thrust of the NDP’s plan on the overdose crisis is to create a separate ministry of mental health and addictions to focus not only on the crisis, but also on treatment.
That would mean a minister for mental health and addictions gets up every day to make sure there is progress, “not just ignoring it,” said Horgan, campaigning in the Lower Mainland with less than one week left until the May 9 election.
Polls show the NDP and Liberals close, with Green support strong in areas like Vancouver Island.
The NDP say they want to incorporate an ask-once, get-help-fast approach for mental health and addictions. The NDP also promises the “widest-possible” distribution of life-saving naloxone kits with people trained to use them and to start a special initiative with First Nations communities.
Horgan, however, wouldn’t be pinned down Thursday on how many treatment facilities or beds were needed or how much more money would be needed to curtail the crisis. He said it would be presumptuous to do so, and those calculations will be made after the election.
At Fire Hall No. 22 in South Vancouver, Dustin Bourdeaudhuy, vice-president of Local 18 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, noted there had been 15 overdose deaths in the city last week, six of those outside the Downtown Eastside, showing its spread from the initial hot spot.
The latest numbers released by the City of Vancouver on Thursday show there have been 141 overdose deaths in 2017, with 41 alone in April. About 60 per cent are due to fentanyl, a much more potent drug than heroin or morphine.
“It’s out of control, and it’s just getting worse. We went on 700 overdose calls in the month of April alone. That’s just unheard of,” said Bourdeaudhuy. “We are hoping that regardless of who wins the election — they recognize this crisis and the funding comes quickly.”
The firefighters’ union supports seven NDP candidates in Vancouver, including David Eby (Vancouver-Point Grey) and Adrian Dix (Vancouver-Kingsway), and one Liberal candidate, Suzanne Anton (Vancouver-Fraserview).
Bourdeaudhuy said more money is needed to help all agencies on the ground and to make more treatment available immediately for addiction and mental health.
“A lot of people come forward and say they need help and there’s just nowhere for them to go — people need a place to be put right away so they have the best possible result,” he said.
Liberal Leader Christy Clark had said earlier that her government has led the country in its response to the crisis, the first province to declare a provincial health-care emergency and create an expert, joint task force. The Liberals have promised to spend millions on educating young people on the dangers of fentanyl, as well as set up a B.C. addiction-treatment research and training centre to fight the overdose epidemic.
The Greens have said they’ll also establish a new ministry for mental health and addictions, redirecting $80 million in government spending for the initiative.
It strikes me we are not doing enough to address this — and I want to make changes. We need to take decisive action.