Todayville
  • Red Deer
    • City of Red Deer
    • Community
    • Food and Dining
    • Local Business
      • Business of the Year Awards
      • Real Estate
    • Local Education
      • Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools
      • Red Deer Public School Division
    • Local Entertainment
      • Celebrity Dance Off
    • Local Sports
      • Athlete of the Month
    • #ReDiscoverRedDeer
    • #RedDeerStrong
  • Alberta
    • Agriculture
    • Alberta Country Music Awards
    • Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
    • Central Alberta
      • Blackfalds
      • Drumheller
      • Innisfail
      • Lacombe
      • Penhold
      • Red Deer County
      • Rimbey
      • Rocky Mountain House
      • Stettler
      • Sylvan Lake
    • Calgary
    • Edmonton
    • Energy
    • Government of Alberta
  • Topics
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Business
    • Creator
    • Crime
    • Economy
    • Education
    • History
    • Lifestyle
    • News
    • Podcasts
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Register
  • Login
  • Our Network
    • Todayville Calgary
    • Todayville Edmonton
Connect with us
Todayville Todayville

Todayville

B.C. mayors voice discontent over province’s response to drug crisis

  • Topics
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Business
    • COVID-19
    • Crime
    • Economy
    • News
    • Sports
    • Travel
      • Gerry Feehan
    • Also Interesting
  • Red Deer
    • #ReDiscoverRedDeer
    • City of Red Deer
    • Community
    • Food and Dining
    • Red Deer Downtown Business Association
    • Local Business
      • Business of the Year Awards
    • Local Education
      • Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools
      • Red Deer College
      • Red Deer Public School Division
    • Local Entertainment
      • Celebrity Dance Off
    • Local Sports
      • Athlete of the Month
    • Primary Care Network
  • Alberta
    • Agriculture
    • Alberta Country Music Awards
    • Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
    • Government of Alberta
  • Opinion
    • Bruce Dowbiggin
    • Dan McTeague
    • John Campbell
    • John Stossel
    • Josh Andrus – Project Confederation
    • Michael Shellenberger
    • Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan
  • Energy
  • Central Alberta
    • Blackfalds
    • Drumheller
    • Innisfail
    • Lacombe
    • Penhold
    • Red Deer County
    • Rimbey
    • Rocky Mountain House
    • Stettler
    • Sylvan Lake
  • Register
  • Login
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Advertise

Addictions

B.C. mayors voice discontent over province’s response to drug crisis

Todayville

Published

9 months ago

10 minute read

The street outside the Harbour Supervised Consumption Service in Victoria, B.C., on Sept. 6, 2024. (Photo credit: Alexandra Keeler)

By Alexandra Keeler

A number of B.C. mayors say the province’s drug decriminalization project has been a failure — and they are not confident involuntary care will address the problem

Many B.C. mayors are unhappy with the province’s handling of the drug crisis, saying it is failing their communities.

“I don’t think [the province’s] approach was very well thought out,” said Mayor Brad West of Port Coquitlam, a city of 61,000 that is a half-hour’s drive east of Vancouver.

“They announced, seemingly pretty quickly, that the province was going to pursue decriminalization, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of public discourse or consultation in the lead up to it,” he said.

“It was just kind of like, ‘Bam! Here it is.’”

West’s comments were echoed by other municipal leaders, who also say the province’s harm-reduction and treatment services are under-resourced, leaving them ill-equipped to help community members who are struggling.

‘Can’t do anything’

West says he and Port Coquitlam’s constituents observed an immediate increase in public drug use after the province launched a three-year, trial decriminalization project in January 2023.

The project initially enabled residents to use otherwise illicit drugs — such as fentanyl, heroin and cocaine — in most parts of the province, although it prohibited drug use on school premises or near child-care facilities.

Yet, West says drug use in parks and playgrounds was a major issue in his community.

“What [decriminalization] meant in a place like Port Coquitlam is that when you did have an incident that required a police response, none was forthcoming anymore,” he said. “[Police] would tell you, ‘Well, we can’t do anything. We’re not allowed to.’”

In June 2023, Port Coquitlam responded by passing a bylaw, introduced by West, that banned drug use in public spaces. Other B.C. municipalities — including Nelson, Kamloops and Campbell River — soon followed suit.

In December, B.C. tried to pass a law enabling police to remove people from public spaces if they were using drugs. But a B.C. court temporarily blocked it, citing risks to drug users.

The province then sought approval from Ottawa to re-criminalize public drug use, which it obtained this spring. Now, hard drug use is only permitted in private residences, legal shelters or harm-reduction clinics.

Subscribe for free to get BTN’s latest news and analysis, or donate to our journalism fund.

Subscribe to Break The Needle

Wait times

West says he has also been frustrated with the province’s harm-reduction facilities, which he describes as “poorly staffed” and “under-resourced.” These facilities often fail to connect individuals to necessary resources or recovery programs, he says.

West has witnessed some of these problems up close. His stepbrother battled addiction and homelessness before finding recovery.

“The biggest barrier that I think he encountered — and most people encounter in terms of recovery — is the wait times,” he said.

The wait time to get into B.C.’s private addiction rehab centres is about three to seven days. But the cost — ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 a month — is out of reach for many.

By contrast, the wait time to get into government-funded programs is about three to six months.

In addition to advocating for more accessible recovery services, West emphasizes the need for stronger enforcement at docks, ports and borders to combat drug trafficking.

“Our ports of entry, our border, the port itself, are completely porous,” he said. “We have no dedicated port police — one of the few jurisdictions that doesn’t. And as a result, Metro Vancouver has become an epicentre for drug trafficking.”

In May 2023, he was the sole Canadian mayor invited by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss the issue with other mayors. “We have weak [drug] laws … This is why I think we’ve become a global hub for [drug trafficking],” he said.

Brain damage

The BC NDP and BC Conservatives have both recently pledged to introduce involuntary care, which would enable the province to admit people with addiction challenges, brain injuries and mental-health issues into treatment facilities without their consent.

Mayor Leonard Krog of Nanaimo, a coastal city of about 100,000 on the east side of Vancouver Island, has long advocated for involuntary care.

Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog sits in his office at Nanaimo City Hall on Sept. 4, 2024. (Photo credit: Alexandra Keeler)

Krog notes that a significant segment of the homeless population has suffered brain damage, which can exacerbate efforts to help them. A 2020 report by Brain Injury Canada says about 50 per cent of people experiencing homelessness have some form of brain injury.

Krog does not believe people with brain injuries and addiction issues are likely to seek treatment on their own. “Those folks should be in secure, involuntary care,” he said.

But he is not optimistic that NDP’s involuntary care proposal will address the full scope of the issue.

“[I]n terms of numbers, my strong view is that it will not address the significant population who are currently in the streets.”

Stay alive

Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto believes in providing support to keep people alive until they seek recovery.

“My view of harm reduction is … I’ll give you anything you need to stay alive until you have that epiphany moment,” she said.

But she is concerned that the province has not adopted a comprehensive approach to tackling the drug crisis. The recent proposals to introduce involuntary care have not eased her concerns.

“Involuntary care can be a necessary tool in a complex system,” she said. “But its effectiveness hinges on clear standards. We must ensure that individuals receive not just initial intervention but also ongoing support to prevent their return to the circumstances that led them there.”

“The devil is in the details,” she said.

Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto leans against a railing in downtown Victoria, B.C. , in May 2022. (Marianne Alto’s Facebook)

The B.C. capital has been pursuing additional strategies to tackle the city’s homelessness, addiction and mental health challenges.

For example, a local nonprofit has been working with individuals living in parks to connect them with housing and support. “It’s also very slow, because to be very successful, you have to do it one person at a time, one-on-one. But it’s working,” she said.

But other efforts have met resistance.

City council rejected a motion introduced by Alto that had proposed rewarding churches and cultural centres that offered overnight parking to vehicle-dwelling homeless people. Five council members opposed it, Alto says, citing fears about crime and concerns that the program overstepped their duties.

“There is a genuine fatigue in the public, which is being reflected in municipal councils, saying, ‘How much further, how much longer, how much more?’”


This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant to Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.

You’re currently a free subscriber to Break The Needle. Our content is always free – but if you want to help us commission more high-quality journalism, consider getting a voluntary paid subscription.

Upgrade to paid

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Email
  • Telegram
  • Print

Related

Related Topics:#BreakTheNeedleAlexandraKeelerBCDrugCrisisBCDrugDecriminalizationBCMayorsDrugCrisisInvoluntaryCareNanaimoMayorLeonardKrogPortCoquitlanMayorBradWestVictoriaMayorMarianneAlto
Up Next

Harm Reduction is a Lie: Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan

Don't Miss

Cartels, UN, and NGOs Fuel U.S. Border Crisis – A Report from Colombia

Todayville

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

More from this author
Crime / 2 hours ago

Tucker Carlson: US intelligence is shielding Epstein network, not President Trump

Freedom Convoy / 2 hours ago

Court Orders Bank Freezing Records in Freedom Convoy Case

Alberta / 7 hours ago

‘Far too serious for such uninformed, careless journalism’: Complaint filed against Globe and Mail article challenging Alberta’s gender surgery law

Addictions

‘Over and over until they die’: Drug crisis pushes first responders to the brink

Published on July 9, 2025

By

Todayville

By Alexandra Keeler

First responders say it is not overdoses that leave them feeling burned out—it is the endless cycle of calls they cannot meaningfully resolve

The soap bottle just missed his head.

Standing in the doorway of a cluttered Halifax apartment, Derek, a primary care paramedic, watched it smash against the wall.

Derek was there because the woman who threw it had called 911 again — she did so nearly every day. She said she had chest pain. But when she saw the green patch on his uniform, she erupted. Green meant he could not give her what she wanted: fentanyl.

She screamed at him to call “the red tags” — advanced care paramedics authorized to administer opioids. With none available, Derek declared the scene unsafe and left. Later that night, she called again. This time, a red-patched unit was available. She got her dose.

Derek says he was not angry at the woman, but at the system that left her trapped in addiction — and him powerless to help.

First responders across Canada say it is not overdoses that leave them feeling burned out — it is the endless cycle of calls they cannot meaningfully resolve. Understaffed, overburdened and dispatched into crises they are not equipped to fix, many feel morally and emotionally drained.

“We’re sending our first responders to try and manage what should otherwise be dealt with at structural and systemic levels,” said Nicholas Carleton, a University of Regina researcher who studies the mental health of public safety personnel.

Canadian Affairs agreed to use pseudonyms for the two frontline workers referenced in this story. Canadian Affairs also spoke with nine other first responders who agreed to speak only on background. All of these sources cited concerns about workplace retaliation for speaking out.

Moral injury

Canada’s opioid crisis is pushing frontline workers such as paramedics to the brink.

A 2024 study of 350 Quebec paramedics shows one in three have seriously considered suicide. Globally, ambulance workers have among the highest suicide rates of public service personnel.

Between 2017 and 2024, Canadian paramedics responded to nearly 240,000 suspected opioid overdoses. More than 50,000 of those were fatal.

Yet many paramedics say overdose calls are not the hardest part of the job.

“When they do come up, they’re pretty easy calls,” said Derek. Naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses, is readily available. “I can actually fix the problem,” he said. “[It’s a] bit of instant gratification, honestly.”

What drains him are the calls they cannot fix: mental health crises, child neglect and abuse, homelessness.

“The ER has a [cardiac catheterization] lab that can do surgery in minutes to fix a heart attack. But there’s nowhere I can bring the mental health patients.

“So they call. And they call. And they call.”

Thomas, a primary care paramedic in Eastern Ontario, echoes that frustration.

“The ER isn’t a good place to treat addiction,” he said. “They need intensive, long-term psychological inpatient treatment and a healthy environment and support system — first responders cannot offer that.”

That powerlessness erodes trust. Paramedics say patients with addictions often become aggressive, or stop seeking help altogether.

“We have a terrible relationship with the people in our community struggling with addiction,” Thomas said. “They know they will sit in an ER bed for a few hours while being in withdrawals and then be discharged with a waitlist or no follow-up.”

Carleton, of the University of Regina, says that reviving people repeatedly without improvement decreases morale.

“You’re resuscitating someone time and time again,” said Carleton, who is also director of the Psychological Trauma and Stress Systems Lab, a federal unit dedicated to mental health research for public safety personnel. “That can lead to compassion fatigue … and moral injury.”

Katy Kamkar, a clinical psychologist focused on first responder mental health, says moral injury arises when workers are trapped in ethically impossible situations — saving a life while knowing that person will be back in the same state tomorrow.

“Burnout is … emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment,” she said in an emailed statement. “High call volumes, lack of support or follow-up care for patients, and/or bureaucratic constraints … can increase the risk of reduced empathy, absenteeism and increased turnover.”

Kamkar says moral injury affects all branches of public safety, not just paramedics. Firefighters, who are often the first to arrive on the scene, face trauma from overdose deaths. Police report distress enforcing laws that criminalize suffering.

Subscribe for free to get BTN’s latest news and analysis – or donate to our investigative journalism fund.

Understaffed and overburdened

Staffing shortages are another major stressor.

“First responders were amazing during the pandemic, but it also caused a lot of fatigue, and a lot of people left our business because of stress and violence,” said Marc-André Périard, vice president of the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada.

Nearly half of emergency medical services workers experience daily “Code Blacks,” where there are no ambulances available. Vacancy rates are climbing across emergency services. The federal government predicts paramedic shortages will persist over the coming decade, alongside moderate shortages of police and firefighters.

Unsafe work conditions are another concern. Responders enter chaotic scenes where bystanders — often fellow drug users — mistake them for police. Paramedics can face hostility from patients they just saved, says Périard.

“People are upset that they’ve been taken out of their high [when Naloxone is administered] and not realizing how close to dying they were,” he said.

Thomas says safety is undermined by vague, inconsistently enforced policies. And efforts to collect meaningful data can be hampered by a work culture that punishes reporting workplace dangers.

“If you report violence, it can come back to haunt you in performance reviews” he said.

Some hesitate to wait for police before entering volatile scenes, fearing delayed response times.

“[What] would help mitigate violence is to have management support their staff directly in … waiting for police before arriving at the scene, support paramedics in leaving an unsafe scene … and for police and the Crown to pursue cases of violence against health-care workers,” Thomas said.

“Right now, the onus is on us … [but once you enter], leaving a scene is considered patient abandonment,” he said.

Upstream solutions

Carleton says paramedics’ ability to refer patients to addiction and mental health referral networks varies widely based on their location. These networks rely on inconsistent local staffing, creating a patchwork system where people easily fall through the cracks.

“[Any] referral system butts up really quickly against the challenges our health-care system is facing,” he said. “Those infrastructures simply don’t exist at the size and scale that we need.”

Périard agrees. “There’s a lot of investment in safe injection sites, but not as much [resources] put into help[ing] these people deal with their addictions,” he said.

Until that changes, the cycle will continue.

On May 8, Alberta renewed a $1.5 million grant to support first responders’ mental health. Carleton welcomes the funding, but says it risks being futile without also addressing understaffing, excessive workloads and unsafe conditions.

“I applaud Alberta’s investment. But there need to be guardrails and protections in place, because some programs should be quickly dismissed as ineffective — but they aren’t always,” he said.

Carleton’s research found that fewer than 10 mental health programs marketed to Canadian governments — out of 300 in total — are backed up by evidence showing their effectiveness.

In his view, the answer is not complicated — but enormous.

“We’ve got to get way further upstream,” he said.

“We’re rapidly approaching more and more crisis-level challenges… with fewer and fewer [first responders], and we’re asking them to do more and more.”


This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant to Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.


Subscribe to Break The Needle
Launched a year ago Break The Needle provides news and analysis on addiction and crime in Canada.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Email
  • Telegram
  • Print

Related

Continue Reading

Addictions

New RCMP program steering opioid addicted towards treatment and recovery

Published on June 14, 2025

By

Todayville

News release from Alberta RCMP

Virtual Opioid Dependency Program serves vulnerable population in Red Deer

Since April 2024, your Alberta RCMP’s Community Safety and Well-being Branch (CSWB) has been piloting the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program (VODP) program in Red Deer to assist those facing opioid dependency with initial-stage intervention services. VODP is a collaboration with the Government of Alberta, Recovery Alberta, and the Alberta RCMP, and was created to help address opioid addiction across the province.

Red Deer’s VODP consists of two teams, each consisting of a police officer and a paramedic. These teams cover the communities of Red Deer, Innisfail, Blackfalds and Sylvan Lake. The goal of the program is to have frontline points of contact that can assist opioid users by getting them access to treatment, counselling, and life-saving medication.

The Alberta RCMP’s role in VODP:

  • Conducting outreach in the community, on foot, by vehicle, and even UTV, and interacting with vulnerable persons and talking with them about treatment options and making VODP referrals.
  • Attending calls for service in which opioid use may be a factor, such as drug poisonings, open drug use in public, social diversion calls, etc.
  • Administering medication such as Suboxone and Sublocade to opioid users who are arrested and lodged in RCMP cells and voluntarily wish to participate in VODP; these medications help with withdrawal symptoms and are the primary method for treating opioid addiction. Individuals may be provided ongoing treatment while in police custody or incarceration.
  • Collaborating with agencies in the treatment and addiction space to work together on client care. Red Deer’s VODP chairs a quarterly Vulnerable Populations Working Group meeting consisting of a number of local stakeholders who come together to address both client and community needs.

While accountability for criminal actions is necessary, the Alberta RCMP recognizes that opioid addiction is part of larger social and health issues that require long-term supports. Often people facing addictions are among offenders who land in a cycle of criminality. As first responders, our officers are frequently in contact with these individuals. We are ideally placed to help connect those individuals with the VODP. The Alberta RCMP helps those individuals who wish to participate in the VODP by ensuring that they have access to necessary resources and receive the medical care they need, even while they are in police custody.

Since its start, the Red Deer program has made nearly 2,500 referrals and touchpoints with individuals, discussing VODP participation and treatment options. Some successes of the program include:

  • In October 2024, Red Deer VODP assessed a 35-year-old male who was arrested and in police custody. The individual was put in contact with medical care and was prescribed and administered Suboxone. The team members did not have any contact with the male again until April 2025 when the individual visited the detachment to thank the team for treating him with care and dignity while in cells, and for getting him access to treatment. The individual stated he had been sober since, saying the treatment saved his life.

 

  • In May 2025, the VODP team worked with a 14-year-old female who was arrested on warrants and lodged in RCMP cells. She had run away from home and was located downtown using opioids. The team spoke to the girl about treatment, was referred to VODP, and was administered Sublocade to treat her addiction. During follow-up, the team received positive feedback from both the family and the attending care providers.

The VODP provides same-day medication starts, opioid treatment transition services, and ongoing opioid dependency care to people anywhere in Alberta who are living with opioid addiction. Visit vodp.ca to learn more.

“This collaboration between Alberta’s Government, Recovery Alberta and the RCMP is a powerful example of how partnerships between health and public safety can change lives. The Virtual Opioid Dependency Program can be the first step in a person’s journey to recovery,” says Alberta’s Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Rick Wilson. “By connecting people to treatment when and where they need it most, we are helping build more paths to recovery and to a healthier Alberta.”

“Part of the Alberta RCMP’s CSWB mandate is the enhancement of public safety through community partnerships,” says Supt. Holly Glassford, Detachment Commander of Red Deer RCMP. “Through VODP, we are committed to building upon community partnerships with social and health agencies, so that we can increase accessibility to supports in our city and reduce crime in Red Deer. Together we are creating a stronger, safer Alberta.”

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Email
  • Telegram
  • Print

Related

Continue Reading
Current Month

july, 2025

No Events

  • Most Popular This Week!
Business4 days ago

RFK Jr. says Hep B vaccine is linked to 1,135% higher autism rate

Alberta5 days ago

Alberta Independence Seekers Take First Step: Citizen Initiative Application Approved, Notice of Initiative Petition Issued

Health4 days ago

RFK Jr. Unloads Disturbing Vaccine Secrets on Tucker—And Surprises Everyone on Trump

Crime4 days ago

National Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in 324 Defendants Charged in Connection with Over $14.6 Billion in Alleged Fraud

Trending

  • Crime1 day ago

    “This is a total fucking disaster”

  • International2 days ago

    Chicago suburb purchases childhood home of Pope Leo XIV

  • Fraser Institute1 day ago

    Before Trudeau average annual immigration was 617,800. Under Trudeau number skyrocketted to 1.4 million annually

  • Daily Caller2 days ago

    Blackouts Coming If America Continues With Biden-Era Green Frenzy, Trump Admin Warns

  • MAiD1 day ago

    Canada’s euthanasia regime is already killing the disabled. It’s about to get worse

  • Daily Caller2 days ago

    ‘I Know How These People Operate’: Fmr CIA Officer Calls BS On FBI’s New Epstein Intel

  • Red Deer1 day ago

    Join SPARC in spreading kindness by July 14th

  • Business1 day ago

    Prime minister can make good on campaign promise by reforming Canada Health Act

Todayville
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Principles and Practices
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Jobs
  • Advertise on Todayville

Copyright © 2025. Created by Todayville Inc.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
X