Many of the social service providers converged in Veteran’s Plaza outside of Prince George City Hall today (Thursday) to connect with each other.
The event was first brought forward to Prince George City Council in July as a notice of motion by Councillors Kyle Sampson and Brian Skakun.
“I think the expectations when I was kind of dreaming this up from our end of things was just simply, how can the City play a role in helping folks connect better,” Sampson said.
“I see the Men’s shed here, which deals with trauma and grief, men who are going through that, and I see Carrier Sekani, I see Foundry. All of these organizations touch folks in our community in different ways, they provide different resources, and sometimes folks don’t know where to reach out to, so they go to one and if that organization doesn’t know how to connect them with the other, that’s where things fall apart so something like this is crucial.”
Sampson added he’s grateful the City can play a role in supporting the providers.
“The whole goal is to support these groups doing what they’re doing so they can continue to grow and expand,” he said.
“If our small participation can help that, then that’s a job well done from my perspective about our staff.”
Michelle Miller with Moms Stop the Harm and Broken Hearts of Fentanyl said they’ve learned a lot through the event.
“We though there was only seven treatment beds in the north, and actually there’s ten at the sobering centre on First Avenue where the National used to be,” she said.
“Everybody has their own ideas, their own agencies of what harm reduction looks like, so working together and not being judgmental and accepting everyone, what they’re doing is harm reduction and it’s really important.”
The event fell on International Overdose Awareness Day, and was also held as the first ever Prince George Prescription Take-back Day.
“Most people in our community are very frustrated with the challenges that we have around mental health and addictions, and people are wanting solutions, and they’re wanting to know what they can do to participate to try and reduce the crisis,” said Prince George-Valemount MLA Rosalyn Bird.
“This is one small grassroots initiative that allows people to do that.”
Bird said she got the idea from a similar initiative in the United States that happens twice a year.
“April of 2025, they collected more than 620 pounds of medication, that’s in a single day, April of this year,” she explained
“Since they started the initiative, which was 2016, ironically that’s the same year that B.C. declared our opioid crisis. Since 2016, they have collected more than 20 million tonnes of medications. When you think about what that means, not just for community safety, what that means for our environment, it’s not being flushed down the toilet, it’s not ending up in landfills, it’s not poisoning wildlife, so all of those pieces are extremely important but it gives people in community an option to participate in a solution.”
Bird added she’s hoping this will become a province-wide initiative, with the long-term goal of having this move across the country.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
