MLA OPENS DRUG DETOX CENTRE

Lorne Mayencourt Hopes To Have 100 Recovering Addicts In Treatment By
The End Of Next Year

PRINCE GEORGE - MLA Lorne Mayencourt has quietly opened a rural drug
treatment facility near Prince George.

New Hope already has five clients living on a decommissioned U.S.
military base about a 10-hour drive from Vancouver. It is not due to
open officially until mid-January.

Mayencourt hopes to have 100 clients living in refurbished Cold
War-era buildings by the end of next year.

The recovering addicts will do much of the construction themselves --
hard work and acquiring job skills being part of the program.

The 65-hectare former Baldy Hughes air force base will, over the
course of the next year, be transformed into a community for
recovering drug addicts modelled on the San Patrignano facility in
Italy, which houses 2,000 addicts, some of them for several years
during their recovery.

Like San Patrignano, Mayencourt expects New Hope to be at least partly
self-supporting. Clients will train and work in the automotive shop
and learn carpentry, building furniture and other products for sale.

Unlike the city's harm-reduction projects, needle exchanges, drug
substitution programs and supervised injection sites, New Hope clients
will move away from the temptations of urban life, give up drugs and
stay off drugs.

"Over the last several years my focus has really shifted into areas of
addictions, mental health and homelessness," said Mayencourt, who will
not run again when his term ends in 2009. He believes that New Hope is
the best way he can effect solutions to those problems.

"I was thinking to myself about what else I wanted to do at the
provincial level and this is it," he said.

And he is thinking big.

"I want to put all my energy into [New Hope]," he said.

"We want to build a community of 500 recovering addicts."

The base consists of six barracks, a large-scale kitchen and mess,
gym, ice rink and industrial shops.

"There are 23 buildings in all and the restaurant is open for our use
now," he said. The buildings are solidly constructed, though a little
short on insulation, something the tiny crew is working to address
while they refinish the interiors and reactivate ancient heating systems.

"It will take years to redevelop the site, but that's okay," he said.
"We want that to be part of people's recovery program."

Mayencourt says his clients have to battle addiction, but they also
tend to arrive with little education or interpersonal skills, all of
which must be addressed before they can be expected to survive in the
world after treatment.

New Hope is open to adult men and women.

Mayencourt admits that he has been approached about running for
Vancouver city council by persons that he will not name and by federal
conservative MP John Reynolds about taking a run at Hedy Fry's seat in
Vancouver Centre.

"Timing will really dictate whether I take any of that on," Mayencourt
said. Timing, and assurances that he will be able to pursue
substantive work in homelessness and addiction.

First elected as the MLA for Vancouver-Burrard in 2001, Mayencourt has
created sparks during his tenure.

An altercation with a homeless man left Mayencourt with a bruised face
and made him the subject of a special prosecutor's
investigation.

Mayencourt regrets that he "lost control" of the situation and ended
up accused of assaulting the man, "when, in fact, it was the other way
around."

"That was a hard lesson, but that guy is now a very good friend of
mine," Mayencourt said.

"He's in recovery and we have since had some pretty good laughs over
that experience."

Mayencourt drew the ire of anti-poverty groups for his private
member's bill that came to be known as the Safe Streets Act, which
targeted aggressive panhandlers and squeegee kids.

"There has been some research that shows that Safe Streets had a
really positive impact in downtown Vancouver and also in Kelowna and
Prince George," he said.

He's not done yet as an MLA. Mayencourt is working on a bill that will
help medical and engineering professionals, among others, with foreign
credentials gain recognition from local professional colleges and
accreditation agencies. TILMA, the Trade, Investment and Labour
Mobility Agreement recently signed by B.C. and Alberta, provides the
blueprint for Mayencourt's bill.

"There are some roadblocks that need to be removed," Mayencourt said.
"They need to start to view people with foreign credentials as assets
rather than liabilities."

Mayencourt is confident that he and his constituency office staff will
be able to keep up with the demands of his duties as an MLA and serve
his constituents while he gets New Hope up and running.

"They've been with me for six years, so they know the ropes and we
have good relationships with the provincial and federal bureaucracies
to help people when they are in trouble," he said.