"Zero." That is how Premier David Eby rated the chances of B.C. implementing a recommendation from provincial health officer Bonnie Henry to expand access to "non-prescribed alternatives to unregulated drugs."
Henry made the recommendation in a report tabled Thursday. Such a system would essentially involve the public providing people who use drugs with products of known quality as an alternative to the illegal market. While B.C. already has a limited system of prescribed 'safe supply,' Henry's recommendation would expand government's role in making alternatives available. Her recommendation rests in part on the argument that unregulated drugs available through the illegal market have become increasingly unsafe and potent.
Speaking Friday at an unrelated event at Simon Fraser University's Burnaby campus, Eby rejected the recommendation.
"I have been clear with Dr. Henry, clear with the public in B.C. We are not moving to a model where there are no medical professionals directly involved when people are using harmful and toxic drugs. It's just non-negotiable."
Eby praised Henry's expertise and work during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding it is "okay for us to disagree from time to time" on public health issues.
"She needs to have her independence," he said. "She needs to do the work that she feels is important to bring up issues that she feels reporting on without government interference and I encourage her to do that work. But on this issue, it's very straightforward. There is a zero per cent chance of that recommendation being implemented."
Eby added that government needs to balance the advice of public health officials with political realities.
"I respect and appreciate Dr. Henry's advice always," he said. "It doesn't mean we always take it."
Eby also used to occasion to criticize a B.C. Conservative promise to fire Henry should they win office in the fall. Part of the Conservatives' argument rests on her recent recommendation, but mainly on the vaccine mandate for health care professionals. Provincial Conservatives also plan to compensate health care workers who lost their jobs because of their refusal to get vaccinated.
"I think it's completely bizarre that he (Rustad) would want to get rid of someone who did such amazing work for us during the pandemic and led us through that and instead reward the people who refuse to get vaccinated," Eby said. "There is a very different and distinct position from ours."
Eby also touched on a looming disagreement with what could be a future federal Conservative government. Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre Friday said his government would shut supervised injections near schools, playgrounds and "anywhere else that they endanger the public."
Eby said B.C. is in the middle of a toxic drug crisis that has killed thousands. He added that supervised injections keep people alive by connecting them to the medical system at large and prevent the spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS as well as street disorder.
"I'm hopeful that I can make the case to any administration that closing these sites would be a real mistake, both in terms of quality of life in the broader community, but also in terms of our efforts to keep people alive."
-with files from Canadian Press
