B.C.’s deputy premier thinks Interior Health needs to be more responsive to the public.
“IH needs to be working with people, not being a roadblock,” Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, said at a news conference in Nelson on May 25.
Farnworth was referring to events over the past few weeks after IH announced its plan install a safe and regulated inhalation site at the Nelson Friendship Outreach Clubhouse at 818 Vernon Street. The agency postponed the project following strong pushback from the Clubhouse’s neighbouring residents and businesses, and from Mayor Janice Morrison, who accused IH of lack of consultation and of not responding to questions.
Farnworth was reacting to public allegations of criminal activity at the IH-owned Clubhouse site and on the surrounding streets. He did question the need for an inhalation site.
“I think the issue is that IH needs to be working with the local community and take their concerns seriously,” he said. “And by saying nothing, all that does is create more anxiety and unnecessary fear. And that doesn’t help anybody.”
Following Farnworth’s comments, Lannon de Best, IH’s executive director for the Kootenay Boundary, told the Nelson Star in a May 29 email that after meetings with the Nelson Police Department, IH has temporarily moved the services provided at the Clubhouse to other locations.
During the day on weekdays IH has run mental health and addiction programs at the Clubhouse. The public complaints have been largely about after-hours activity in the yard and nearby streets when the building has been closed.
“I must make it explicitly clear that Interior Health does not tolerate or condone any form of criminal activity,” de Best said, “including trespassing, and have taken a number of steps to increase security at the clubhouse.”
He said that includes signage, lighting, security patrols and video surveillance at the facility.
Neighbourhood Network, a group led by the Clubhouse’s residential neighbours and nearby businesses, has published a pamphlet detailing their struggle with property damage, trespassing, and criminal activity in their neighbourhood which they say is perpetrated by people who congregate in the yard at the Clubhouse. The group has been strenuously lobbying IH and the provincial government to respond to this, adding that they do not oppose a safe inhalation site as such.
Harm-reduction advocates, and IH itself, say a safe inhalation site will help to reduce the number of toxic drug deaths in Nelson. Safe injection and inhalation sites are an attempt to control a toxic and unregulated supply. Nelson already has two safe injection sites, but neither is set up for inhalation. Smoking, and not injection, is the most common mode of consumption among people who have been killed by illicit drugs.
“Multiple factors are creating the challenges facing Nelson and other communities,” IH’s de Best said. “Interior Health is fully committed to working with partners to support health care services for all individuals who need it – including life saving harm reduction services.”
Nelson’s mayor Janice Morrison, who also heads the Nelson Police Board, said city council is not trying to block an inhalation site.
“We just want IH to be a better neighbour. They are not managing their site,” she told the Nelson Star on May 26.
“IH needs to be brave, host a meeting, have some difficult conversations, and decide from there how they are going to move forward with any operational plans they have for that site.”
Nelson-Creston MLA Brittny Anderson said she has been in several discussions with IH about safe supply and the issues at the Clubhouse.
“We are trying to make sure that the community are being heard by Interior Health,” she said. “It is their facility and their responsibility to fix this issue. The neighbours, the community, and the people using drugs, they are all members of our community and we need to keep them all safe.”
Anderson said the situation presents challenges and opportunities.
“The opportunity is to have services provided in a vibrant neighbourhood where the community feels safe.”
READ MORE:
• Proposed Nelson inhalation site opening delayed by city, resident concerns
• COLUMN: Decriminalization is here, and it won’t be enough
bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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