Canada’s governor general says multiple solutions are needed to combat the overdose crisis that continues to plague the country, requiring efforts from all corners of affected communities.
Julie Payette made the comments while touring an overdose prevention site and meeting with first responders in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Saturday, who are on the front lines of the fight against fentanyl and other deadly substances that have contributed to a rise in drug-related deaths.
She said while she admired and wanted to highlight the work of paramedics, firefighters and police, she said more needs to be done.
“If it wasn’t a complicated situation, we would have solved it a long time ago,” she said. “And what I see is that we are doing exactly the right thing about it, is to work all together.
“It’s not just first responders, it’s not just health, it’s also a society and social work and it’s in the community together is where we are going to find solutions and diminish the hardship.”
Payette was joined by Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, Police Chief Adam Palmer, Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical health officer Dr. Patricia Daly and other officials.
After meeting at a fire hall on Main Street, the group then walked a few blocks to the Molson Overdose Prevention Site on East Hastings Street, where people use their own drugs and are provided with safe injection supplies.
The Molson site was opened in 2017 to relieve pressure from the Maple and Overdose Prevention Society Trailer sites, which health officials said had seen more than 120,000 visits since opening in December 2016.
North America’s first supervised overdose prevention site opened in Vancouver in 2003, long before the province declared a provincial health emergency in April 2016. Since then, roughly 30 sites have opened across B.C.
The Downtown Eastside recently saw the unveiling of a new solution to the crisis put forward by a private doctor: a vending machine that distributes a regulated opioid supply.
Stewart, Daly and provincial chief medical health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry have also called for access to a clean and safe supply of drugs for people with addictions. Stewart has requested funding from the federal government to help make that a reality.
Payette said several solutions beyond current efforts are needed on a co-ordinated level to truly solve the crisis.
“Human beings are complex, and one way of solving a problem never works. It has to be different solutions,” she said.
“Some will have to do more with health care, others will have to do more with health services and mental services and society and everything in between, and I think it’s important to highlight every single step.”
Before she was governor general, Payette says she was on the board of Drugs Free Canada, a non-profit organization that helps parents prevent and deal with addiction in youth.
According to the BC Coroners Service, 991 people died of illicit drug overdoses in 2016, 1,486 died the next year and 1,510 were killed in 2018.
The most recent numbers indicate that deaths are beginning to trend downward. At least 823 people have died of fatal overdoses so far in 2019, compared to 1,290 in the first 10 months of 2018.
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