KEEP EYE ON RECOVERY HOUSES: CITY

The City of Abbotsford is calling on the B.C. government to monitor
all recovery houses to help ensure the facilities for addicts
attempting to get clean are fulfilling their mandate.

In one of five resolutions Abbotsford is forwarding to the Union of
British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) conference in Victoria later
this month, the city is requesting that the province start to
regulate all supportive recovery residences.

Recovery houses were the province's responsibility until 2001.

However, at that time, ministers ruled that a recovery facility had
to provide two or more "prescribed services" to obtain a community
care facility licence under the provincial Community Care and
Assisted Living Act.

Those facilities are the only ones regulated by the province, which
means the houses that offer one or less prescribed services are not
governed by legislation.

Following numerous complaints relating to unregulated recovery houses
in Abbotsford, the city established a committee to address the issue.

And while the findings of that group are still to be made public,
Abbotsford Mayor George Ferguson hoped the province would provide
some relief by rethinking its position.

"One of the problems we have is that the provincial government
downloaded that situation and passed it onto the municipalities, but
they did not give us any money, they just gave us the problem,"
Ferguson told the Abbotsford News on Thursday.

"There are no rules or regulations and that puts us in a difficult
position. If there happened to be a tragedy in one of these places
you could see where the headlines would be - with the municipality."

The Abbotsford resolution is asking that the provincial government
regulate all supportive recovery houses, regardless of the number of
prescribed services they provide.

If it is approved by the UBCM executive during the conference from
Oct. 23 to 27, that body will lobby provincial ministers on
Abbotsford's behalf.

"What we are trying to do is get some guidelines that we can apply so
they (the houses) meet the requirements for owners and for the people
living in the homes," said Ferguson

"There are some of these places that are well run and some that are
not well run, and unless we get some guidelines for policing them, we
are going to end up with a major problem."

Back in May, The News was told that there may be more than 30
unregulated recovery houses in Abbotsford.

Concerns included the continued use of drugs on-site, overcrowding
and a lack of services to aid recovering addicts.

At that time, Abbotsford city Coun. John Smith described the current
situation as a "wild west." He also said the city is "burying its
head in the sand" by "pretending" unregulated recovery homes in
Abbotsford do not exist.

The other Abbotsford resolutions that will go before the UBCM executive are:

- - Authority to establish sprinkler bylaw. The City of Abbotsford
wants the province to grant municipalities the authority to establish
sprinkler bylaws to "increase life safety" and "minimize property damage."

- - Cross-border environmental impacts. The city will ask that the UBCM
urge the federal government to implement responsibilities under the
Canada-USA Air Quality Agreement to ensure the interests of Canadians
are "defined and presented" during air quality-related discussions
between the two countries.

- - Future electrical generation in B.C. The city wants the province to
give "clear direction" to B.C. Hydro to consider the "full costs and
all environmental impacts" from the burning of coal.

The city also wants the province to press B.C. Hydro to more
aggressively pursue improvements in energy efficiency, such as wind,
tidal or run-of-river power.

- - Audible bird scare devices. The city is asking the provincial
government to phase out the use of blueberry cannons over the next
three years. The city believes this is appropriate because they say
the devices result in "chronic noise disturbance to area residents."

According to the Abbotsford resolution, the devices "should not be
considered an acceptable farming practice."