Vancouver Agreement touted as national model
The Trudeau government is considering a move to revive and revamp the Vancouver Agreement, a tripartite accord to rescue the Downtown Eastside from a 1990s public health crisis, as part of a broader plan to export that approach across the country.
One participant in the discus- sions, who asked not to be named, said that agreement is seen as a model that could be replicated across Canada to help encourage provinces, often wary of federal governments meddling in municipal affairs, to get involved in one of Canada’s most challenging issues.
“It’s a concept we’re exploring,” the official said, adding that Ottawa is “looking at ways of getting social funding into cities directly, but in a way that brings provincial governments along.”
The Vancouver Agreement, struck in 2000 by the federal and B.C. governments plus the City of Vancouver, was allowed to lapse by the Harper Conservative government when it came up for a second five-year renewal in 2010.
Responding to a wave of overdose deaths and the rampant spread of HIV, the arrangement led to a number of economic and social policy initiatives that included the creation of North America’s first supervised injection site.
Now Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, as well as a number of other urban areas across the country, have been hit with a new crisis: overdose deaths related to fentanyl use.
That problem has added a new layer to the ongoing struggle to deal with people facing a combination of mental illness, addiction, homelessness and chronic criminality.
The Trudeau government, meanwhile, is preparing for a 2017 federal budget intended to fulfil campaign promises to invest in Canada’s social infrastructure, increase affordable housing and make mental health care more accessible.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who declined to be interviewed on the matter, is among those municipal players who have argued in favour of a revived Vancouver Agreement.
Several local figures, including former Vancouver mayors Mike Harcourt and Larry Campbell and Vancouver East MP Jenny Kwan, say they support a renewed tripartite effort.
“There’s a crying need nationally to come to grips with the problems of mental illness and addiction, and the havoc it causes,” said Harcourt, a volunteer with the Building Community Society of Greater Vancouver, a group created to find and fund solutions for the Downtown Eastside’s many problems.
The Vancouver Agreement, involving more than 20 government ministries and agencies as well as private sector groups, resulted in an estimated $28 million being invested in the neighbourhood that came from the three levels of government.
The Vancouver Agreement helped reduce the rates of HIV infections and drug-overdose deaths, but neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside are now experiencing a crisis-level surge in fentanyl overdose deaths.
Several advocates for more action to deal with urban social problems said they have heard rumours of a revival of some revamped version of the Vancouver Agreement, and hope the Trudeau government moves ahead in the city, around B.C. and across the country.
“I am supportive of reviving something like the Vancouver Agreement and for all levels of government to work collaboratively and in co-ordination with each other to address the ongoing challenges the community faces,” said Kwan, who was the provincial NDP minister responsible for Victoria’s role in the original accord.
Campbell, the former mayor and B.C. chief coroner who is now a senator, said a federal initiative needs to include other cities around Vancouver, plus other communities around B.C. and across the country, that are dealing with fentanyl, homelessness and other issues.
“It’s a problem for all of us,” he said.
Julian Somers, who has done extensive academic research on the issue with Simon Fraser University’s faculty of health sciences, said any tripartite initiative would need to focus on those suffering from what he calls complex co-occurring disorders, or CCDs.
Those with CCDs have addiction and mental health issues, face homelessness and are frequently in trouble with the police, Somers said.
While the Downtown Eastside is the epicentre of CCD-afflicted people, there are high concentrations elsewhere in B.C. and especially in the north. Prince George, Quesnel, Terrace, Prince Rupert and smaller communities in the Bulkley-Nechako regional district, as well as the northern part of Vancouver Island, have particularly high rates, according to a 2015 study co-authored by Somers.
A Vancouver Coastal Health Authority 2015 report, which looked at the need for a “second-generation” approach to mental health and addiction issues, also stressed the need to expand services outside the Downtown Eastside.