City OKs opioid plan
Community policing focus criticized
Vancouver city council heard strong opposition to its plan for tackling the opioid crisis from Downtown Eastside residents and social workers at city hall on Wednesday.
Despite that, the city approved the plan, and will spend $2 million of the $3.5 million raised through a 0.5 per cent fentanyl-related property tax hike on a Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services medic unit and a community policing centre in Strathcona, among other things.
For speakers like Maria Wall stam, increasing community policing was not only unhelpful in the fight against fentanyl, but also offensive.
“In the midst of this tragedy, it’s shameful that the city is planning to use funds that are supposed to be set aside to mitigate the fentanyl crisis and the overdose deaths towards a project that’s really aimed to placate property owners’ fears,” said Wall stam, who is with the Carnegie Community Action Project.
Spending more money on police — volunteer or otherwise — doesn’t help drug users, Wall stam said, adding that “any serious attempt at addressing the fentanyl crisis must work towards the decriminalization of drugs .”
Drug policy reform was something Mayor Gregor Robertson, some councillors and city staff also called for on Tuesday after receiving an update from public health officials on the scale of the opioid crisis. During that update, officials reiterated their appeal for the decriminalization of illicit drugs.
Before councillors voted on the plan, Karen Ward of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users said more police will only further drive people underground and cut themselves off from services they need.
“The Downtown Eastside is already over-policed,” she said. “What we propose … is a peerbased approach that connects with people where they’re at and respects them for who they are.”
A few dozen people came either to speak to councillors or give their support to speakers.
It was an emotional hearing that reflected the distress felt by community members who keep seeing friends and neighbours die in the ongoing public health emergency.
Vision Vancouver and Green party councillors approved the plan in its entirety, despite concerns over a community policing centre that will require a onetime startup cost of $100,000 and nearly $110,000 in annual funding.
Non-Partisan Association councillors voted against parts of the plan, calling for more consultation — though as Vision Coun. Tim Stevenson said, they had earlier protested hearing from residents who were not on the speakers’ list.
Councillors also voted to allocate the remaining funds from the fentanyl-related tax — about $1.5 million — to supporting front-line service workers.
Dan Jackson, with the Strathcona Residents Association, was among the few residents who spoke in support of the community policing centre, noting that it was “something we have been asking for a long time.”