Vancouver approves tax to help first responders battling opioid overdose crisis
Vancouver has approved a small tax hike intended to help address the opioid overdose crisis.
Councillors passed a budget Tuesday that includes a 0.5-per-cent increase in property taxes to support frontline service providers, including firefighters who have been seeing multiple overdoses per day.
The BC Coroners Service recorded more than 620 fatal drug overdoses across the province between January and October, about 60 per cent of them linked to the deadly opioid fentanyl.
The city says in a new release that firefighters responded to 745 calls about drug overdoses in November, and crews had to use the overdose-reversing drug naloxone 35 times.