PM WON'T SHUT INJECTION SITE, SAYS MAYOR

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

Harper criticized the Liberal-endorsed pilot project early in the
campaign leading to the election in January, 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
Wednesday after meeting here with Harper.

The pilot project was launched in September 2003 after Health Canada
agreed to 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.

Carolyn Stewart Olsen, Harper's press secretary, said the prime
minister wasn't available to comment publicly on the meeting with Sullivan.