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Global News
5 days ago
- Health
- Global News
After feds cut funding, B.C. keeps ‘safer supply' programs running — for now
Despite concerns that prescribed alternatives, such as hydromorphone, are being diverted to the street drug supply, the B.C. government has stepped in to keep five safer supply programs operating for another year after federal funding for the pilot projects ended on March 31. Between 2017 and March 2025, Health Canada says it funded $126 million through its Substance Use and Addictions Program (SUAP) on 31 pilot projects across the country that were designed to evaluate approaches for providing 'prescribed alternatives' in response to the toxic drug and overdose crisis. Federal funding for the projects 'sunset as planned' at the end of March, Health Canada said in a statement. 2:12 Report slams B.C. drug policy Five of the programs previously funded via SUAP are in B.C., according to the B.C. Ministry of Health, which has since provided funding to all of them for one year through March 2026. Story continues below advertisement Vancouver Coastal Health's Safer Alternative for Emergency Response (SAFER) Initiative and Kilala Lelum, and three projects in the Vancouver Island Health Authority (AVI SAFER in Victoria, Nanaimo, and the North Island) 'remain operational with contingency measures in place,' the B.C. Ministry of Health told Global News on Wednesday. Pharmacist Gary Siu, who has owned and operated Garlane Pharmacy on East Hastings Street in Vancouver for more than 40 years, said he suspects politics may be behind Health Canada's cessation of funding for the safer supply initiatives. 'It's controversial,' Siu told Global News in an interview on Wednesday. 'There's good points and bad points, the bad points, people complained about diversion of the hydromorphone to the illegal supply.' Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday. Sign up for weekly health newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy When asked if drug diversion played a role in the decision to end funding for these programs, Health Canada did not respond. 'The approach that had previously been taken around prescribed alternatives was not working,' B.C. Premier David Eby acknowledged on Tuesday. In February, the B.C. government announced it was overhauling its safe supply program to make sure prescribed medications are being used by the people they are intended for. 2:23 B.C. overhauls safe supply program The province's take-home safe supply program has changed to a witness model, with new patients required to consume their drugs under the watch of health professionals, while existing patients are transitioned to witnessed consumption. Story continues below advertisement The B.C. Ministry of Health said evidence shows the prescribed alternatives program has helped separate people from the unregulated drug supply, manage their substance use and withdrawal symptoms, while helping connect them to voluntary health and social supports, including substance use treatment. 'We're going to continue to work with public health, with people of lived experience, with the Indigenous communities and people across the province to ensure that we are keeping people alive, getting them into treatment and helping them rebuild their lives,' said Eby. 'There was significant diversion,' said Opposition B.C. solicitor general and public safety critic, Elenore Sturko. 'We know that has caused harm in our community, and whether or not the ethics of this program can still justify its existence, we don't know.' While shifting to a fully witnessed model is a good first step, Sturko said, recovery should be the focus, and the government has provided no evidence that safer supply works to help people recover. 'It doesn't surprise me they're continuing the funding, but I am pleased to se,e actually, that the feds have ended the funding and it's clear that this is something that they want to move away from,' Sturko told Global News. 1:42 B.C. Conservatives release leaked Ministry of Health presentation on safe supply Prescribed alternatives were dispensed to 2,960 people in B.C. in May, according to the Ministry of Health. Story continues below advertisement Pensioner Dave McAleer, 72, said he's been receiving prescribed methadone for 'too long' but it keeps him off street drugs most of the time. 'They're trying to get me down,' the Downtown Eastside resident told Global News on Wednesday. Siu said he's noticed a trend of doctors slowly reducing doses for safer supply patients, from what was initially a maximum of 14 hydromorphone tablets per day. 'Now they are phasing out like each month, each new prescription, instead of 14, they're getting 10, eight and slowly phasing it out,' Siu said. 'And then the people who legitimately require it are getting short-ended a little bit and pushed out.' The longtime pharmacist said it's a complex problem without a clear-cut solution. 'Because people are addicted, you want to help them, you don't want them to commit crimes or anything like that,' Siu said. 'Hopefully, they get back on the right path.' Vancouver Coastal Health told Global News it will continue to work with the B.C. Ministry of Health on strategies to support clients of SAFER and Kilala Lelum after March 2026. 'Our priority remains ensuring the most vulnerable people have access to critical health services and a range of options to address their unique needs and circumstances,' VCH said in a statement. Story continues below advertisement Through SUAP, Health Canada said it continues to fund projects from prevention and education to harm reduction and treatment.
CBC
03-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
Ottawa spends over $3 million on mental health, addictions support in northwestern Ontario
The federal government is spending more than $3 million to support mental health and addictions outreach efforts in northwestern Ontario. Ya'ara Saks, federal minister of mental health and addictions and associate minister of health, made the announcement on Friday in Thunder Bay, Ont., at City Hall. The city has the highest opioid-related death rate in the province, according to the latest information from the Office of the Chief Coroner. At a rate of 78.16 deaths per 100,000 population in the first half of 2024, that's more than five times the provincial average of 15.7 deaths per 100,000 population. As the region's only supervised consumption site, Path 525, closes at the end of March in Thunder Bay, a new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hub is slated to open in its place. "I know how much this community cares about saving lives and being on the front and centre in northern Ontario of the overdose crisis in the illicit toxic drug supply that is harming so many communities," Saks said. "There's too many Canadians who lost their lives to this tragic and unrelenting public health crisis that has touched the lives of too many families, friends, neighbours and loved ones." More than $838,000 is going to the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario (EFSNWO) through the Substance Use and Addictions Program. In addition, three other projects are getting funding from the Emergency Treatment Fund: $237,960 for the City of Thunder Bay and NorWest Community Health Centres (NWCHC) to expand mobile outreach services and create an encampment response team. $1,909,367 for Marten Falls First Nation to provide a mobile response unit for crisis outreach, counselling, culturally-relevant programming, and connections to treatment. $141,875 for Beendigen Inc. to purchase a community mobile unit to offer harm reduction services. In all, the Emergency Treatment Fund includes more than $11 million for 14 projects across Canada, Saks said. More than 350 project applications were received, over 70 per cent of which came from Indigenous communities. "Meeting people where they are at with programs and projects that make sense, that open doors, that help people when they need it in that moment," said Saks. "Because if it's not today that we help them, if it's not today that we don't talk, that we don't reach out to them, what will happen tomorrow?" Outreach work and on-site support Rilee Willianen, the city's encampment response lead, said the new encampment response team will allow the city to lead outreach efforts in tent communities, supporting its human rights based approach to homelessness. "[It] will connect with the folks who are living in the encampments and build relationships with them so eventually, they can be in a place to improve their circumstances," Willianen said. "This funding will help support us to do that, which will help us then to address encampments, which also then helps to address public health and public safety concerns." While a number of organizations provide support at the city's encampments already, Willianen said having the city partner with NWCHC allows it to expand its involvement in an effective and appropriate way. "One of our benefits as a smaller community is that we all work really well together, so this is just a further demonstration of how important it is to work together and to continue doing that work in a good way." As for the EFSNWO, executive director Lindsay Martin said the funding is supporting the operational costs of hiring more staff; namely, a substance use health co-ordinator, two full-time peer support workers and one part-time peer support worker. The organization supports women and gender-diverse people who are involved in the criminal justice system, many of whom are experiencing homelessness, mental health or addiction issues. The staff members will be situated at EFSNWO's transitional housing units to provide on-site support, Martin said. "It will be really impactful to help support the key population of those leaving incarceration and those who are unhoused and to be able to support them on their substance use journey in an alternative sort of non-clinical type of way," they explained. The organization takes a harm reduction approach to addiction, which means supporting people who are in active addiction by reducing the harms around substance use. Examples of this are providing new needles, sterile drug equipment, and naloxone kits which are used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. While the province has scaled back harm reduction with the upcoming closure of supervised consumption sites — as HART hubs will not allow supervised drug consumption, needle exchange or safer supply programs — Martin said it's an integral part of addiction services. "It's really key to be able to support them wherever they're at on their journey and not always directing somebody into a formatted, prescribed, forced recovery process when they're not necessarily ready," said Martin.
