The Conservative Party of BC have announced a new comprehensive strategy focusing on treatment and recovery to tackle British Columbia’s addictions and mental health crisis, while also taking aim at the policies set forth by the BC NDP and the federal Liberal party.
This morning, party leader John Rustad held a press conference at the site of the former Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam and revealed that if elected, his party would turn the site into a “centre of excellence for mental healthcare and addictions recovery,” including growing its secure treatment capacity.
“We will seek federal partnerships to expedite development and navigate complexities related to the Canada Health Act,” he said.
There have been several attempts to create a master plan for redevelopment of the 244-acre former Riverview Hospital site over the past decade, including a preliminary planning process led by BC Housing under the previous BC Liberals (BC United) government between 2013 and 2015, which included new modern addictions and mental health treatment facilities and a mix of housing options, with market housing components helping fund the construction of the new healthcare facilities.
Riverview Hospital (Sumiqwuelu) in Coquitlam. (BC Housing)
In 2021, the BC NDP-led government directed BC Housing to restart the planning process for the future of the site in collaboration with the Kwikwetlem First Nation. However, this process came to a halt soon after due to the First Nation’s concerns with reintroducing such major healthcare facilities to the site on their traditional lands.
Jennifer Whiteside, the BC minister of mental health and addictions and the BC NDP’s MLA for New Westminster, previously told Daily Hive Urbanized the planning process is fully contingent on the First Nation’s participation.
Riverview Hospital officially closed in 2012, following its gradual wind-down in the 1990s and 2000s in favour of a regional and community care approach, which failed to fully materialize.
A minor mental health facility with 38 beds for teenagers opened at the Riverview Hospital site in 2019. In 2021, the new purpose-built $101-million Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addictions opened at the hospital lands, providing 105 beds. However, both facilities are largely a relocation of existing capacity previously located at the Willingdon Lands in Burnaby.
Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addiction on the former Riverview Hospital lands in Coquitlam. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addiction on the former Riverview Hospital lands in Coquitlam. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Today, Rustad announced the BC Conservatives would enforce maximum wait standards for treating critical mental health conditions such as schizophrenia, psychosis, and eating disorders, calling the current wait time of “months” unacceptable.
As well, there would be efforts to cut the wait time for voluntary addictions treatment, which currently takes an average of 35 days to enter a care facility.
“We will make BC the North American model for drug treatment and recovery,” said Rustad today. “We will end the cruel delays, close the dangerous gaps between detox and care, and build recovery communities that provide professional, compassionate care for as long as it takes to get lives back on track.”
“Too many people are falling through the cracks of our mental healthcare system. We will enforce strict wait-time regulations, expand access to mental health support in schools, and build the infrastructure needed to provide world-class care right here in British Columbia.”
The party has also promised to build new secure housing units to establish safe facilities for the treatment of individuals who pose a risk to themselves or the public, build new specialized housing for individuals with complex needs from anoxic brain injuries due to drug use, integrate addictions treatment into the correctional healthcare system, and remove the high financial costs for families to send their family members to treatment facilities.
Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addiction on the former Riverview Hospital lands in Coquitlam. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)
Existing and future facilities would be required to integrate healthcare services as an integral part of their programming when it comes to supportive housing. Rustad also previously announced that the BC Conservatives would establish a policy banning the use of opioids within supportive housing.
There would also be major changes in how overdose prevention sites (OPS) operate, with the BC Conservatives holding OPS operators “accountable” for their perceived impacts on the surrounding neighbourhoods. The party notes that OPS sites may be needed as a “temporary and emergency measure,” but there would be new strict standards of conduct and operations, with non-compliant OPS sites facing closure. There would be “no more free-for-all drug use near schools and playgrounds, no more spilling out onto residential streets.”
If elected, the BC Conservatives say they would also end the “safe supply” strategy of the BC NDP and federal Liberal government. Supporters of safe supply assert this strategy helps safe lives, but the party states they will help addicts “transition safely to treatment medications, instead of perpetuating their reliance on dangerous street drugs.”
Additionally, Rustad’s government would end decriminalization and stop drug legalization that “normalize and perpetuate opiate addiction,” and introduce province-wide drug education programs that focus on youth and young adults.
The BC Conservatives have also vowed to introduce laws to allow involuntary treatment for individuals deemed to be at serious risk of addiction, including youth and adults, and establish specialized units to provide targeted care for those experiencing severe addiction or mental health conditions. This would aim to reduce pressure on hospital emergency rooms.
In recent months, BC NDP party leader David Eby also suggested the possibility of enabling involuntary treatment as an added tool for addressing addictions and mental health crises.
The provincial general election is scheduled for October 19, 2024.