$20 MILLION FOR DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE CAN'T BE USED FOR SAFE-INJECTION SITE

A new $20-million fund has been committed to improve the Downtown Eastside,
but the money isn't supposed to be used for projects that should be paid
for by existing government programs.

That means it won't go to cover the cost of running a safe-injection site
for drug users, said Mayor Larry Campbell.

Campbell, Vancouver-Quadra MP Stephen Owen and B.C. Community Services
Minister George Abbott made the announcement Tuesday about the $10 million
each that the provincial and federal governments have agreed to put into
the Vancouver Agreement -- a five-year pact among the three levels of
government to improve the neighbourhood.

"It won't be used to fund the supervised injection site. That will be
funded by health-care money," said Campbell, who was heckled, as he has
been for the past couple of weeks, by a group of activists from the
Downtown Eastside.

The group, called the Housing Action Committee, is outraged that Campbell
has supported a plan that put 40 extra police in the neighbourhood for
three months while the injection site for drug users, which he said was his
first priority when he was campaigning for mayor last fall, is still not
open and there is no information on who will pay to operate it.

Abbott and Owen, in interviews after the press conference announcing the
$20-million funding, said the money can't be used to shift responsibility
for services from existing programs to the Vancouver Agreement.

Besides the injection site, seen as one part of the harm-reduction
initiative that is supposed to be a crucial piece of the city's drug
strategy, money is also needed for improvements to both treatment and harm
reduction. The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority's plan for a dramatic
expansion of services is pegged at $56 million.

It is unclear whether any part of that plan could be paid for with
Vancouver Agreement money.

Abbott and Owen said they and Campbell will consider all creative proposals
to see what can be funded to complement existing government programs.

"We as a management committee can spend the money as we see fit," said
Owen. "We're not looking to displace existing responsibilities."

But, he said, Vancouver Agreement money could be used for a skills-training
component for addicts, or as bridge money between different pieces of the
addictions system.

Abbott said the management committee members are "not going to be too
exclusive or prescriptive. We don't want to limit anyone's imagination.
With these new funds, there'll be no shortage of great ideas."

In the meantime, the Housing Action Committee led about a dozen people from
the Downtown Eastside to the regional office of Health Canada, where they
demanded a letter be faxed to Health Minister Anne McLellan's office,
asking McLellan to take action on getting the federal exemption needed to
open an injection site.