Federal regulations causing delays for safe consumption sites

Nov 2, 2016 | 5:09 PM

KAMLOOPS — As health officials face the daunting task of trying to prevent overdose deaths in B.C., strict legislation is presenting a bit of a hurdle.

Bill C-2 is making the establishment of new safe consumption sites difficult and time consuming, and Kamloops could eventually be caught in that lengthy process. 

As the death toll rises in Kamloops and across the province there are renewed calls to amend or repeal the bill. 

WATCH: Full report by Jill Sperling

Bill C-2, or the Respect for Communities Act, was passed by the previous Conservative government early last year. 

B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake says it’s been a significant road-block to safe consumption sites.

“They’ve raised the bar so high on public consultation and other barriers that it makes it almost impossible,” Lake said.

The bill requires potential safe consumption sites to meet dozens of strict stipulations in order to operate.

“The new government in Ottawa has a different attitude towards safe consumption sites,” Lake said, “they’ve made the road a little bit smoother, but withdrawing C-2 or replacing it with something more sensible I think will help all communities around B.C. and the rest of the country to put in needed harm reduction services.” 

Bob Hughes, executive director of Ask Wellness, was recently at a Pacific AIDS Network conference in Vancouver, where Bill C-2 was a major focus.

“The way that the act is constructed is in such a way that the onus is on the agent applying, in this case it would be the health authority, to show that they have done adequate consultation to almost reach a level of consensus,” Hughes said.

Vancouver’s Coastal Health Authority has recently applied for two new supervised injection sites. Interior Health is also looking at safe consumption sites in Kamloops, but the current legislation could slow down the process.

“We really do need to talk to the local residents, businesses, city council,” Lake said. “Here the city council is very forward looking in this regard and has unanimously supported a safe consumption site, but Bill C-2 has set a high bar and it will make it more difficult.” 

It’s especially difficult in a community where there has been much debate over how and where a safe consumption site would be implemented.

“While we sit and debate over the virtues of supervised consumption, and we debate over what to do, we’re continuing to see our brothers and sisters, our mothers, fathers, people who are part of our community dying as a result of this epidemic of overdose in our province and in our community,” said Hughes. 

Under Bill C-2 Interior Health is required to file for an exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in order to be approved for a safe consumption site in Kamloops. That paperwork has not yet been filed.

The health authority says it is still in the process of community engagement. Once this is complete the exemption will be filed, and the hope is that will happen before the end of the year. 

Dr. Trevor Corneil, chief medical health officer for Interior Health, doesn’t know how long it will take before the exemption is approved, but expects a relatively quick response from the federal government.

“What we’re hoping is that we’ll have our application in sometime in the next 8 weeks,” Corneil said. “It’s dependent on a few things. Engagement is a part of it, so is actually pulling the paperwork together. We plan to have it submitted. We expect the turnaround time to be anywhere from four weeks to six months, I don’t think it’s going to be longer than that.”