PM 'WON'T SHUT DRUG SITE'

Sullivan Says Harper's Open To Innovations Of Safe Injection Program

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper has offered assurances that
he won't move to shut down Vancouver's safe injection site for heroin
users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan
said here Wednesday.

Harper had criticized the Liberal-endorsed pilot project at an early
campaign event during the 2006 election, but Sullivan said earlier
this week he received private assurance later in the campaign that
Harper had no plans to withdraw federal approval of the initiative.

"We discussed his commitment during the campaign - that he did not
want to facilitate drug use but he was interested in the local
innovations that come forward, and he's open to them," Sullivan said.

"So I basically feel very comfortable about that position. And also
he stated that he wasn't interested in trying to get in the way of
existing innovations."

The pilot project was launched on Sept. 15, 2003 after Health Canada
accepted the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority's application for an
exemption under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act.

Health Canada said this week the government will consider extending
the exemption when it expires later this year after assessing whether
the program is successful "in reducing risk behaviours like drug
overdose, needle sharing, public use of drugs and in reducing the
probability of disease transmission."

Sullivan, who plans to travel to Ottawa regularly to push the city's
issues to Harper and his ministers, urged the prime minister to hold
a full cabinet meeting in Vancouver.

"I did say I would love to have him and his cabinet visit Vancouver
for a meeting, and he was very intrigued by the invitation," he said.
"And he expressed that Vancouver is an important part of his agenda,
and I think we will be seeing that bearing fruit over the next few years."

Carolyn Stewart Olsen, Harper's press secretary, said the prime
minister wasn't available to comment publicly on the meeting. She did
confirm that Sullivan, a Conservative party supporter, is the first
Canadian mayor to have a private meeting with Harper.

Sullivan presented Harper with the Olympic and Paralympic flags given
to Canada at the recent games in Turin.

Olympic organizers and the B.C. government are pushing the Harper
government to provide $55 million in next week's budget to cover a
cost overrun.

"I did stress that my gift [was] meant to confirm that this is
Canada's Olympics and Canada's Paralympics. The people of Canada need
to feel proud of that and support our effort."