David’s Eby 2023 travel itinerary likely hasn’t been finalized yet but a trip to Prince George is in the cards.
In an exclusive interview with Vista Radio, the newly-named BC Premier accepted PG city council’s request to have him and provincial ministers come up to the northern capital to discuss the city’s social issues.
One of them is the toxic drug crisis where PG set a new record for drug overdose deaths this year with 60.
Eby stated to combat the public health emergency, the province has a Vancouver-based solution that could assist some of our most vulnerable.
“We are working with St. Paul’s Hospital right now on a new model of treatment for the province that will be seamless when people go to the emergency room and they have an overdose. When they wake up from the emergency room and they have that moment of clarity, they can go right into detox, right into treatment, and then into supportive housing.”
“People will see an increased focus from us on treatment as a response, around education as a response, around intervening to get between people and the toxic drug supply and get them directed into treatment through safe supply. We need to get them away from the predatory dealers and into a place where they can contact a physician or a nurse that can get them into treatment so we can keep people alive.”
Currently, the HUB at St. Paul’s Hospital aims to divert mental health and substance use patients out of the regular flow of Emergency Department traffic, and redirect them to a new dedicated care setting, built on a model of rapid response and the co-location of acute and community resources.
In addition, there are four general inpatient mental health units at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital with a total of 60 beds. Adults with mental health and addictions are assessed and treated here and then discharged back to their communities.
In March of 2021, the province began construction for the new St. Paul’s Hospital at the Jim Pattison Medical Centre, which is slated to open in 2027.
Eby says the six-year-long public health emergency that has claimed nearly 11-thousand lives across BC is one of the hardest issues facing their government for two reasons.
“One is the shear tragedy of the human lives lost and the impacts on families and the other is when people are using substances that they got from someone, they often don’t know where it came from and they are at incredible risk right now because the drug supply is so toxic.”
“Safe supply is just one tool to get between people and these predatory drug dealers selling these toxic drugs.”
Despite recording the fewest number of overdose deaths among all the health authorities, Northern Health still has the highest drug toxicity death rate with a mark of 56.1.
Illicit drug toxicity is the leading cause of unnatural death in British Columbia and is second only to cancers in terms of years of life lost. At least 10,688 British Columbians have been lost to illicit drugs since the public-health emergency into substance-related harms was first declared in April 2016.
Many social agencies like the Canadian Mental Health Association and the PG Chamber of Commerce called for the Youth Custody Centre, located at 1211 Gunn Road to be used as a possible shelter space for our homeless.
However, the Office of the Attorney General stated in October 2021, the facility continues to run as a youth custody services site.
In addition, BC Housing is not currently considering the facility for use as supportive housing for people currently living in encampments.
Eby was quite enthusiastic about the initiative shown by mayor Simon Yu and the council to sit down and make progress on our social issues.
“I am really looking forward to and am excited about the fact Prince George council has offered to take a leadership role on being a pilot site for public safety responses and building housing. I am keen to work with the new mayor and council to address these issues in Prince George.”
However, he cautioned local residents that are starving for solutions, a one-size-fits-all approach will not be effective.
“That’s the hard part about this. We can’t apply a solution that’s good for Downtown Vancouver in Prince George – it’s not going to work.”
While Eby confirmed his attendance, he is also sending a mandate letter to Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth to convene local leaders on how to respond to public safety issues.
While announcing his cabinet yesterday (Wednesday), Jennifer Whiteside is the new Minister of Mental Health and Addictions replacing Sheila Malcolmson. Whiteside previously served as Education Minister under former Premier John Horgan.
The issue of prolific offenders remains a hot topic of conversation in cities like Prince George.
MLAs like Prince George-Mackenzie representative Mike Morris have been very critical of the province’s handling of the file.
However, Eby believes the recently announced Safer Communities Action Plan will help alleviate the problem with a major focus on mental health resources.
“We will have peer workers who will go out and connect people with services and free police up to focus on crime and we will also have more resources from the RCMP for smaller communities around Prince George so that the RCMP can focus on crime in the city while other communities can get the resources they need as well.”
“We are really going at this from multiple perspectives across the justice system but also recognizing that the root of a lot of this is centred around mental health and addictions in communities.”
A full link to the Safer Communities Action Plan can be found here.