Application filed for two new supervised injection sites in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There’s hope for speedy approval now that Vancouver Coastal Health has submitted applications for two new supervised injection sites on the Downtown Eastside. They’ve compiled ten binders full of documents to satisfy requirements under the Respect for Communities Act.

The two proposed sites will both be embedded in existing centres.

The first will be located at the Heatley Integrated Health Centre at 330 Heatley Street. It will have four booths and will only be open to clients of the health centre. The second will be part of the new Downtown Eastside Mental Health and Substance Use Drop-In Centre at 528 Powell Street.

This one will be open to the general public and will have four booths with the option to increase to six. Vancouver Coastal would also like a women only injection site, but a site for that is still being determined.

Bill C-2, or the Respect for Communities Act, is legislation enacted under the former Conservative government. It lays out 26 different criteria which health authorities must prove they are satisfying in order to get approval. Vancouver Coastal has been working on these applications before the public health emergency over opioid drug deaths was declared in April.

Doctor Patricia Daly, Chief Medical Health Officer with Vancouver Coastal, says many the requirements are unnecessary.

“Ultimately, we will need full criminal record checks going back ten years for all staff who will work in these locations, even if those staff emigrated from other countries. We will need get evidence they have clear criminal records going back ten years. That’s a particularly onerous piece of legislation. We need to provide the evidence of the benefit of these services. We need to have evidence of the demand within the communities they’re serving. It takes a long time to put together these criteria. We believe some of it is completely unnecessary like the need for scientific evidence of the benefit of supervised injection sites. That’s already been well established.”

Mayor Gregor Robertson calls Bill C-2 flawed and mean-spirited legislation.

“We have over a dozen people a month dying in Vancouver this year of overdose deaths, so every month we lose because of Bill C-2 and an onerous process that’s totally unnecessary and overboard means we’re losing dozens of people in cities like Vancouver.”

There’s no word on how long approval will take, but Vancouver Coastal is going ahead with renovations at the new sites in the meantime.