B.C. BACKS INJECTION SITE

.C. Health Minister Colin Hansen said he is confident money will be found
to run the country's first safe-injection site for drug users among the
government partners that are interested in the project.

Hansen said there are still a lot of questions to be answered -- about the
design and cost, for instance -- but he said believes his ministry, the
health authority, the federal government and the city of Vancouver will
make it work.

"Drug-injection use is obviously a very, very serious problem," said Hansen.

"Governments have to work together on this and think outside the box. We've
got to be willing to try some new initiatives."

He also said that since the federal government has set up a framework to
allow safe-injection sites, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority "has to
be a player" in that.

And he said that all the parties are talking about how to finance it. Some
construction money could flow through the ministry, but the more difficult
question is the need for operating money, which the ministry has no ability
to pull out of its existing budget.

The health authority has said it would cost $2.7 million a year to run a
safe-injection site, including $500,000 for evaluation. It's not clear how
many services, besides a basic injection room, that estimate includes.

Other groups have suggested a site could be operated for about $1 million.

"The first thing we need to know is what the scope is so we can cost it
properly," said Hansen.

In either case, the question of whether to get that annual operating money
is what everyone is trying to work out.

Hansen said the ministry and the health authority are discussing that, with
suggestions that the health authority needs to look at where it is spending
some of its current budget.

"It does comes down to lower priorities that funding could be shifted
from," said the minister. He also said that there has always been an issue
about duplication of services among the many agencies in the Downtown
Eastside and that's something the authority can look at it.

Hansen said that B.C. is also talking to the federal government about how
the current $20-million pool of money in the Vancouver Agreement -- a pool
the province and federal governments contributed to equally to help pay for
programs to improve the Downtown Eastside's economic and physical health --
can be spent.