The cells at the Kamloops RCMP detachment. (CFJC Today File Photo)

By Victor Kaisar

Sobering Centre Plans

Kamloops council optimistic after Interior Health reverses opposition to sobering centre plans

Jan 16, 2025 | 1:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — An updated business case for the long-talked about sobering and assessment centre in Kamloops is back in the hands of the Ministry of Health awaiting approval.

Councillor Katie Neustaeter says she’s hopeful the province will finally sign-off on the plans now that Interior Health has reversed its decision from last year to not support the business case.

“We are exceptionally optimistic that they will recognize that this is such a significant gap that cannot be ignored in our community especially right now as a lot of the policy that is being created at the provincial level is having extraordinary impacts downstream on people,” Neustaeter said as part of her Councillors report during the Jan. 14 meeting.

“We need to create safety nets that support people out of these kinds of crises and this is a huge one.”

A sobering centre is a medically supervised place for people to come down from their most recent stint with drugs or alcohol, as an alternative to locking them up or having the medical system take care of them.

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People taken to these facilities are also given information and guidance on seeking longer-term treatment when they check out.

Neustaeter said the city has been working on these new plans for a sobering and assessment centre since 2023 after the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions asked the City to update an earlier business case from 2016.

“It seemed extremely promising but shortly before last year’s UBCM we were told that Interior Health was not interested in engaging in the process anymore for a sobering centre,” Neustaeter said.

“We had the opportunity to address that at the most recent UBCM during a meeting with the Ministry of Health. It was a very productive conversation wherein it was decided that we would continue to work on both that relationship and the file.”

Neustaeter says the updated business case was submitted to the Ministry of Health in late December after Interior Health gave “their wholehearted support” to the proposal following a few more updates to the business case.

“It’s had a lot of starts and stops along the way but the full community has come together to recognize this fatal gap that continues to exist in our community,” Neustaeter said. “Interior Health is the only health authority that doesn’t have a sobering and assessment centre in it currently.”

“We know that people have died in our jail cells. We know that countless numbers of people could have moved into a place of recovery if there has been something like this in place.”

According to the 2023 business case, the Kamloops sobering centre would have cost an estimated $2.6 million to operate. The 10-bed facility, which would have operated around the clock, was also slated to go into the Phoenix Centre near Royal Inland Hosital and be operated by the Day One Society.

Neustaeter told CFJC Today that the updated business case has removed references to a location and an operator, noting that will be picked through a Request For Proposals (RFP).

“This is a milestone achievement for the sobering and assessment centre application,” Neustaeter told CFJC Today. “This is further than we’ve ever come before and we are extraordinarily hopeful that the province will recognize this fatal gap in services and help us to fill it.”

At this time, its not clear when the Health Minster Josie Osborne will make a decision on the Kamloops application. It was submitted to the Ministry of Health as the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions was absorbed into the health portfolio in Premier David Eby’s latest cabinet.

You can read the updated business case for the sobering and assessment centre in Kamloops here.

CFJC Today has reached out to Interior Health for comment and will update this story if more is known.