Systemic lunacy, bed bugs in PG and a losing govt strategy
Paperbag shame game
Hello one and all!
We’ve got a mixed bag – but no bag fees! – of blurbs and analysis for your reading pleasure.
First off, a news event from earlier this month that got a lot of coverage but could use a bit more.
Tip of the iceberg
The top story out of the provincial capital this month was Dr. Bonnie Henry’s off-the-rails public health report advocating for government-supplied hard drugs to be freely available at retail outlets in BC. Or as Henry put it, enabling “alternatives to unregulated drugs.”
The BC govt, to their credit, rejected it.
The report was widely panned as the extreme position of our top health officer. But what a lot of people might not realize is Henry’s perspective is not some lone wolf howl from left field.
Her views reflect the systemic group thought of many senior public health officials in this province, including apparently, BC’s Health Minister Adrian Dix. Under Dix’s leadership, BC’s public health research agencies, health authorities and ministry programs have for years been steering the system towards legalizing illicit drugs.
War on Drugs 2.0
The rationale Henry presents for recommending govt-regulated retail cocaine, meth, heroin, fentanyl and other drugs is deeply flawed. Illicit drugs are not only toxic because they are “contaminated” by other substances, prohibition is not the cause of the opioid overdose crisis and legalization will not vanquish the illegal drug trade.
In what is essentially the War on Drugs II, Henry recommends flooding the marketplace with addictive drug products to displace the illicit drug industry and reduce harms to drug users. The proposal defies common sense, science and the white paper she commissioned for this report, which show more drugs create more addictions. And govt-supplied drugs cannot beat out the infinitely adaptable and ruthlessly competitive illegal drug trade. It is utter magical thinking.
Her recommendations rely on the “promising evidence” of safe supply studies, which mainly draw on self-reporting by drug users and have so far delivered no scientific proof safe supply stops people from using illicit drugs, or that it reduces overdoses.
The report also fails to note public health has a duty to help people recover. And it dramatically downplays the very real problems of safe supply diversion, particularly the new addictions and drug profits it is fuelling.
Bring on the flying circus
There are strange narratives running through the report, such as Henry’s commitment to unlearn ‘white supremacy’ in her own office and the Monty Python-esque parody of modern-day white guilt woke Canadiana that is her contributors section. Acknowledgment pages in most govt reports and science papers note the contributor, possibly their institution and a short professional bio.
Henry chucks convention and reduces everyone to their race.
National Post columnist and Northern Beat contributor, Geoff Russ, coined it “performative self-sorting” and Tristin Hopper lampoons it. Former Green Party leader and Climate scientist Dr. Andrew Weaver dubbed the report “an outrageous ideological approach to an addiction and homelessness problem.” Adam Zivo offered rare praise to the BC govt for rejecting the recommendations and Rob Shaw said no one needs to read them because they won’t be implemented.
High dive into a shallow pool
After beelining towards legalization of all drugs for years, the Premier screeched the province’s drug policy through a hairpin turn last November after Opposition MLA Elenore Sturko revealed the BC government was funding drug user groups involved in illicit drug trafficking.
Shortly after founders of the Drug Users Liberation Front (DULF) were arrested for trafficking their unsanctioned version of safer supply, Eby and his ministers professed zero tolerance for illegal activity and an ardent commitment to a prescriber-only safer supply.
The turnabout seems to have taken both Henry and former Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe by surprise, both of whom are fans of DULF and their govt-condoned years-long illicit drug buying, checking and trafficking activities.
Lapointe spoke highly of DULF and tried to soften the new hardline taken by Eby & co with a direct appeal to the public for “non-prescribed safer supply” (which fell on deaf government ears). Lapointe is now ‘retired’ from her top coroner’s position after a ‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out’ farewell.
Henry’s days are similarly numbered after she too continued to speak publicly for policies long tolerated, but suddenly out of favour with govt.
Because of Henry’s significant public service throughout the pandemic, she won’t get fired outright (see Vaughn Palmer’s piece). Instead, Eby is quietly supplanting her authority. In the last while, he’s hired a special health advisor and an opioid crisis advisor directly into his office. Even as he rains praise on Henry’s good character and excellent work, he’s edging her towards the exit.
Be kind. Be safe. Be gone.
If legalization is no longer the overarching goal of government, it will take more than a new provincial health officer to correct course. Major changes are needed. Including a review of the infrastructure underpinning the quest for legalization and a refresh of the senior public health management team, from the minister and his deputy, right on down.
Whatever party forms the next government might heed public opinion and ensure public resources are more equitably applied across all the drug strategy pillars: treatment/recovery, education/prevention, enforcement and harm reduction. BC could take its lead from Portugal and Alberta (or BC United’s plan) and re-orient its services from simply keeping people alive, to providing them access to integrated addictions care that truly supports them on a path to recovery.
Quiet the naysayers
Speaking of Alberta, the province’s mental health and addictions ministry just announced its first quarter of 2024 overdose-related data and it looks promising. Overdose deaths at their lowest in years. It’s early days and far from a done deal, but if the trend continues, other jurisdictions may have some hope and a template for a recovery-oriented policy model of addiction and mental health care.
Vow to stay out of court backfires
For a government that vowed to stop taking First Nations to court over land claims, BC sure is getting sued a lot.
The Blueberry River agreement has inspired three lawsuits – two nations with overlapping territorial claims, and one from Blueberry River itself. Doig River and Halfway River accused the government of “bad faith,” alleging the province misled the communities during parallel discussions to the Blueberry River negotiations. And now some members of Blueberry River have filed a claim against the province because they’re dissatisfied with their own negotiators and the amount of development allowed on a tract of land covered by the agreement, according to Energeticcity.ca.
Given the additional confusion created by secret agreements negotiated elsewhere, the legitimate concerns raised by the legal community at previously proposed land use amendments, and the tenure injustices flowing from implementation of Tsilhqot’in title, BC govt would be wise to slow its madcap pace of controversial precedent-setting deals. Otherwise, it’s likely the lawsuits are just getting started.
Act first, listen later a losing strategy
The province said this week it was backing off on implementing Bill 45, which defines the minimum standards a shelter must provide for a municipality to move people from an encampment – 24-hour staff, overnight accommodations, bathroom facilities and a meal.
The legislation met with intense and concerted opposition after the BC NDP hastily introduced it without consultation last fall. The Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) said the bill would block communities’ ability to move or clear encampments since most communities don’t have enough shelter spaces to move them to and have no jurisdiction to create them, housing being a provincial responsibility. Anti-poverty and First Nations advocacy groups said the shelter criteria would reduce protections for encampment dwellers.
Initially, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon brushed aside concerns and blamed municipalities for the lack of housing. After a backlash, Eby said his govt would pass the amendment but wouldn’t implement it until everyone could “get to a place of mutual understanding.” Which turned out to mean, until we can get opponents of the legislation to understand that we’re right and they’re wrong.
Last week, after consulting stakeholders for a few months, the province announced it was pressing pause because the criteria “did not provide enough clarity for a common understanding of a ‘reasonably available alternative shelter’ and the contexts under which the description should or could apply.”
Huh?
The Union of BC Municipalities had a simpler explanation: the province backed down because it’s not providing enough shelter space to meet the standards of its own legislation. Also, if enacted, it’d be impossible for municipalities to obtain injunctions and encampments would grow.
All of this could have been avoided if Kahlon and Attorney General Niki Sharma, who co-led the legislation, had consulted stakeholders before introducing it. But act first, consult later (and only under duress, it seems), is an Eby government trend. Even when they alter course, they do it grudgingly and without conceding error. The encampment backtrack even managed a quick back-pat about how appreciative stakeholders were for the Province’s efforts “to help respond to and prevent encampments.”
‘Radical ideological-driven activism’
Which reminds me of Andrew Weaver’s recent OpEd in the Vancouver Sun. If you missed the former BC Green leader and current climate scientist’s surprisingly frank take on Eby’s leadership and “the hallmarks of his tenure,” it’s worth the 4-minute read. As is Vaughn’s coverage of Eby’s response.
BC Housing: ‘Crawling with bedbugs’
“Slater’s frail elderly next-door neighbour knocked on his door one day to ask him to open a soft drink bottle and as she handed him the bottle a bedbug crawled across her face,” the Prince George Citizen’s Ted Clarke reports on the harrowing bed bug infestation at Victoria Towers.
IT outages increasing
About 50,000 devices at BC hospitals were interrupted by a recent IT outage, forcing some healthcare workers to revert to using a pen and paper until the computer issues were fixed. The interruption was related to a malfunction in a software update made by CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm. Computers running Windows and the Microsoft 360 app were hit. The outage affected airlines and other businesses in Canada, the United States and Europe.
Add this to the growing list of companies recently struck by malicious cyberattacks originating from criminals and nation states, including China and Russia, we’ve entered a new era of digital warfare and vulnerabilities. Good thing we don’t rely on computers or the internet for anything important.
It’s well past time for our federal and provincial governments to take this risk seriously. Instead of just reacting to attacks, they need to put more resources into combatting threats before they emerge – a strong offence is the best defence.
ER closures inspire ingenuity
According to a recent BC United pre-campaign ad dated July 15, there’ve been 38 recent ER closures. Rural communities are hardest hit. When the local hospital is closed, residents may have to drive several hours to the next nearest ER.
“Over the weekend, every hospital in the Peace Region was on diversion except Dawson Creek,” Peace River South MLA, Mike Bernier, told Northern Beat. “You can imagine if we had to divert that one, what would have happened — a four hour drive to Prince George for the Peace Region. That’d be like telling somebody in Langley the nearest hospital they can go to is in Kelowna, and please drive there.”
Dawson Creek city council got tired of waiting for the province to fix the situation and stepped up with their own solution. Council bought a local medical clinic to deal with staffing shortages and keep as many doctors as it can in town. Rob Shaw has the story.
Peace River regional district reps have requested an audit of Northern Health. “One diversion is too many. But now it’s just day after day,” board chair Brad Sperling said at a district meeting last week. When the ER in Fort St. John is closed, the waiting time at Dawson Creek Hospital is nine hours, according to Pouce Coupe Mayor Danielle Veach. Tania Finch reports.
Election platforms are emerging
Speaking of healthcare, BC Conservatives leader John Rustad released his party’s plan for reforming healthcare, which BC United immediately pointed out looked a lot like the one they announced several weeks prior. For the BC NDP healthcare platform, visit your nearest ER.
The Paperbag Precious province
Last word goes to the bag debacle story that began unfolding (harhar) in BC on July 15. The ban on single-use bags was implemented with a disincentive to consumers who shamelessly show up to the grocery store without an armload of reusable bags. Businesses must now charge recycling infractors .25 cents per paper bag and $2 for a reusable bag. It’s supposed to apply mainly to grocers and retailers, but of course some businesses are jumping all over the opportunity to squeeze more bucks from consumers. Todd Corrigall, wrote a piece on it this week… just before he got dinged for a bag fee at his local Prince George McDonalds.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading.
Hope you can enjoy some summer sun wherever you are. If you’ve got a wildfire raging near you, stay safe and breath shallow!
Fran
Comments and questions Fran@NorthernBeat.ca
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