MAYOR TO ASK HARPER TO LET DRUG SITE STAY

Sam Sullivan Wants Reassurance That Project Can Continue

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be asked today to make
clear he won't take steps to shut down Canada's first safe injection
site for heroin users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Harper spoke negatively early in the 2006 election campaign about
Vancouver's so-called "harm reduction" policy, but Vancouver Mayor
Sam Sullivan said he received assurance later in the campaign that
Harper would not attempt to end the innovative program.

Sullivan, who will raise the issue here today in his meeting with
Harper, said he secured that assurance from former Conservative MP
John Reynolds, the party's national election campaign co-chairman.

"Harper's official position is that he doesn't want to facilitate the
use of drugs, but he will not stand in the way of municipal and
provincial innovations," Sullivan said here Tuesday between meetings
with various Tory cabinet ministers.

"And so, I'm going to confirm that with him when we speak."

During a campaign stop in B.C., Harper raised questions about whether
a Tory government would support the experimental program that began in 2003.

Health Canada provided a three-year exemption allowing staff workers
at the facility to provide clean needles and a relatively safe place
for addicts to shoot up. Advocates argued that the program will
reduce the number of overdose deaths.

The federal government provided $1.5 million to fund a study into the
efficacy of the program.

"We as a government will not use taxpayers' money to fund drug use,"
Harper said in Burnaby in early December.

"That is not the strategy we will pursue."

Harper didn't say whether he would attempt to shut down the site,
which doesn't rely on federal funds for operating expenses.

Sullivan, a Conservative party supporter, said the Harper approach
relayed to him by Reynolds is consistent with the new prime
minister's strategy of trying to reach out to Liberal-friendly big cities.

"It's very important for any politician to recognize the kind of
debate and the long-term consensus we've been developing in Vancouver
in support of the (harm reduction) approach."

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

There is no guarantee Health Canada will extend that exemption later
this year, a federal official said Tuesday.

"Sound research is needed to determine whether or not the site is
effective in reducing risk behaviours like drug overdose,
needle-sharing, public use of drugs and in reducing the probability
of disease transmission," according to spokeswoman Carolyn-Annik Sexauer

"Health Canada will first undertake an assessment of the research
results to date" before making that decision.

Former Tory MP Randy White said Tuesday that Harper should ignore the
research being funded by Ottawa, saying it will be "biased" in favour
of extending the program.

White, who heads up a national anti-drug group called the Drug
Prevention Network of Canada, said his former leader should bring
forward a national program that relies on abstinence, public
education, rehabilitation, and law enforcement.

"He needs a national drug strategy that everyone in Canada can adhere
to," White said.