VANCOUVER — Councillors in Vancouver are mulling how to spend about $3.5 million in tax money earmarked for addressing the ongoing illicit drug overdose crisis that claimed 215 people in the city last year.
A 0.5 per cent property tax increase was approved in December and council is considering putting more than $400,000 of the funds toward community policing, including the creation of a new community police centre on the edge of the Downtown Eastside.
Mayor Gregor Robertson said that the volunteer-driven police centre would support community safety and enhance quality of life.
But Katrina Pacey, executive director with the legal advocacy group, Pivot Legal Society, said more policing won't help solve the overdose crisis.
"Historically, because possessing drugs and trafficking drugs is illegal, that really places people who use drugs at odds with police and makes that relationship an adversarial one," she said.
Vancouver police have come around to supporting harm reduction, Pacey added.
"That doesn't undo the difficult relationship between police and people who use drugs, and marginalized people generally," she said.
She does support community policing, but in the current overdose crisis, the money would be better spent on health initiatives and outreach work, Pacey said.
Council is considering several other areas to spend the cash, including $1.9 million to provide more support for a mobile-medical clinic at Firehall No. 2.
That firehall responded to nearly 3,000 overdose calls last year, triple the number in 2015.
Robertson said in a statement that first responders, front-line workers and community volunteers are overwhelmed by the crisis and the current response is unsustainable.
The mayor said he spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week about the urgency of the opioid crisis and the need for leadership to ensure resources and best practices are used.
"The city is doing more than its share to combat the fentanyl crisis but we're at a breaking point," Robertson said.
The provincial coroners' service said 914 people died from illicit overdose deaths in B.C. last year.
