MAYOR QUESTIONS MLA'S PROPOSAL FOR REHAB CENTRE

Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt thinks rural B.C. would be a good place
to send Vancouver's downtown east side drug addicts for rehabilitation.

On Dec. 8, Mayencourt pitched his idea, modelled on a 28-year-old
treatment centre in San Patrignano, Italy, to the Greater Vancouver
Regional Board. In his address, the MLA mentioned 100 Mile House as a
possible site for a treatment facility.

Move the addicts to a rural community, he said, where they can farm
and produce their own goods and be far away from the drug-infested
urban centre.

Mayencourt also told members of the GVRD that there are private
financiers in the Vancouver business community interested in getting
the project underway.

Hold your horses, kind sir, says 100 Mile House Mayor Donna Barnett.

She is nowhere close to being convinced that her town, or the
outlying region, is a good choice to house recovering addicts.

At the very least, Barnett did not appreciate Mayencourt mentioning
100 Mile House without first consulting her and the citizens of this
municipality.

So, she has sent a letter to the Vancouver MLA, expressing concerns
over his proposal.

"In rural B.C. we have our own issues and so far, with help from the
provincial government, agencies, volunteers, spiritual groups and
others, have managed to help most of our unfortunate," Barnett wrote.

"The eastside Vancouver issue has been there for 30 years and has
virtually been, in my opinion, ignored by local government other than
paper plans hoping it will go away or someone else will come to the rescue."

Tough words? Undoubtedly. A case of NIMBY (not in my back yard)? Not
necessarily so.

Barnett said the San Patrignano model, the largest live-in drug
treatment centre in Europe, where 2,200 addicts live and work, may be
a part of the answer to the problems faced in Vancouver's east side.
Rural B.C., she added, may very well be able to play a role.

But the mayor wants Mayencourt to venture east to 100 Mile House and
explain his proposal and give residents an opportunity to speak on
such a model before this community or others are given any further
consideration.

Barnett also suggested it would be beneficial if the Liberal
government took officials from the proposed sites to Italy to
evaluate the San Patrignano model.

Doing so, Barnett concluded, "would be an asset to all and give our
communities a level of comfort your intent was not to just evacuate
the east side of Vancouver to 100 Mile, the Fraser Valley, Okanagan
and Ashcroft, but to work towards a long term solution thus improving
quality of life for those in need, while embracing the quality our
rural B.C. communities possess."

The letter was also sent to Attorney General, Wally Oppal, Solicitor
General, John Les, chair and board of the GVRD, Lois Jackson, and
Village of Ashcroft Mayor Andy Anderson.

While Mayencourt has yet to take the proposal to his boss, Premier
Gordon Campbell, he has received positive feedback from both Oppal and Les.