Liberal policies led to worsening homeless crisis
NDP investments reversing damage, Judy Darcy writes.
When I read Kevin Falcon's Jan. 18 commentary on homelessness and addictions facing our province, I was disappointed.
It wasn't by the content. Many of the proposals are things that the B.C. NDP government is already doing and that I worked on as minister to move forward. Other ideas are misguided and ineffective, things B.C. Liberals, including Andrew Wilkinson, have been saying for some time.
What disappointed me is that Falcon didn't acknowledge or take responsibility for his own direct role in creating the crisis we see on our streets today. As a senior B.C. Liberal cabinet minister for more than a decade, he and his party were responsible for the most aggressive and devastating service cuts in the history of B.C.
Like his longtime B.C. Liberal colleague Wilkinson, who recently campaigned on the same rhetoric and was rejected by voters, Falcon can't hide from his record.
Immediately after the 2001 provincial election, Falcon and his colleagues brought in tax cuts for the wealthiest one per cent. These tax cuts for the rich weren't mentioned before the election, and the B.C. Liberals blew a $4-billion hole in the budget.
They paid for these cuts by gutting services for the most vulnerable British Columbians, including the kids most at risk of falling through the cracks.
They cut child protection and family development by $185 million. They cut $34.5 million from youth mental health and prevention supports. They cut another $15.6 million from childhood development and special-needs services for children.
They dismantled the services and supports designed to keep kids from falling through the cracks.
And they compounded the situation by refusing to invest in new affordable housing or to build a better system of mental health and addiction care.
The result was predictable: In the years that followed, homelessness in B.C. tripled. By 2017, there were nearly 2,500 more people living on the street than when Falcon and the B.C. Liberals came to office.
And when the overdose death toll began to climb in 2012, people without secure housing were among the hardest hit.
Since 2017, the B.C. NDP government has worked hard to tackle homelessness and the heartbreaking challenges of mental health and addictions.
I served as the first minister of Mental Health and Addictions. We worked with Dr. Bonnie Henry to save lives by expanding access to a safe supply of prescription medications, to separate people from the toxic drug supply. We joined the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs calling on Ottawa to decriminalize personal use of street drugs.
We expanded counselling services across B.C., because access to health care shouldn't depend on the size of your bank account or where you live.
We brought in tough new rules for recovery homes to ensure safe quality care.
We undertook a major expansion of preventive Foundry Youth Centres, with more to come. And we partnered with First Nations on new Indigenous-led, community-based mental health and wellness programs, including new treatment facilities and land-based healing.
Government also housed thousands of people by building 3,800 supportive units in 30 communities.
Before COVID-19, this investment showed real progress. For the first time since Falcon and the B.C. Liberals came to office, the homeless count stopped going up. Five hundred fewer people died of overdoses in 2019 compared with 2018.
But the pandemic has set us back. It has exacerbated a toxic drug supply, increased social isolation and created new challenges with finding housing. It's clear there's so much more to do.
That's why the B.C. NDP is more than doubling the number of youth treatment beds and increasing the number of adult beds. The new minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Sheila Malcolmson, is spearheading a plan to create new complex-care housing to ensure that people who need even more help get the services and treatment they need.
But Premier John Horgan and his team understand there's more work to do. And they understand that the path forward is effective investments in people — not B.C. Liberal cuts.