Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is lashing out at the B.C. government about funding new involuntary care beds, but not “where they’re needed most.”
Sim posted a letter on social media stating that, “Once again, the Province has chosen to ignore the city carrying the greatest burden of British Columbia’s addiction, mental health, and public safety crises.”
B.C. Premier David Eby was in Prince George on Friday to announce two new involuntary care facilities — a $92 million 72-bed one in that northern community and a $57-million 60-bed site in Surrey.
The province currently has some 2,000 “involuntary care” beds in all ,with the promise of more to come, but no mention of Vancouver.
“For years, Vancouver has shouldered a disproportionate share of the province’s most complex social challenges,” Sim said.
“Yet with the Province announcing new involuntary care capacity, Vancouver is again left with nothing, not a single new bed.”
“This is an ongoing piece of work and we’re working with other regions of the province, including the Okanagan and Vancouver Island, to identify facilities and opportunities in those communities,” Eby said on Friday.
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While the province is focused on finding existing sites that can be more easily and quickly transformed, such as in Prince George and Surrey, critics say the beds are needed now, the Eby government needs to move faster and Vancouver has to be part of the solution.
“We know that if there’s an area anywhere in this province that was in dire need of mandatory care, it’s probably Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside,” Claire Rattée, the official Opposition critic for mental health, addictions, and social housing, told Global News.
“So I do think it’s definitely a problem that Vancouver has once again been left out of this.”
Most of the $131 million set aside in the last B.C. budget for intensive mental and addictions treatment is earmarked for involuntary treatment beds.
“The Province cannot continue to acknowledge the need for involuntary care while refusing to build the very infrastructure required in the community where the need is greatest,” Sim said.
“When it comes to providing treatment, recovery, and involuntary care for those suffering from the most severe mental illness and addiction in Vancouver, Premier Eby and the Province do nothing.
“That is the wrong priority.”
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