FOUR PILLARS WILL NEED $50,0000

The Central Okanagan Four Pillars Coalition will be asking Kelowna city
council on Monday for at least $50,000 to keep the initiative moving forward.

"We haven't worked out the final figure yet but the money will be used to
hold community consultations, advertising, office supplies and the hiring
of a consultant," said Daryle Roberts, a spokesman for the coalition.

The consultant will advise the coalition on how best to work out a
trilateral agreement between the city and the provincial and federal
governments on what Roberts called the Kelowna Agreement.

He compared it to the Vancouver accord which tapped into the Western
Diversification Fund to pay for its Four Pillar approach in the
drug-infested Downtown Eastside.

Roberts said the coalition is also looking to tap into over $200 million
set aside by Health Canada for the federal Canadian Drug Strategy.

But more immediately, the coalition is set to hold the first of a series of
town hall meetings to find out how local residents view the drug problem in
their own communities.

"The information that comes back from those meetings will written into a
draft report where we identify gaps in services," explained Roberts.

The coalition will hold another community forum when the report is complete.

"If changes are required, then it will be redrafted and presented to
council, hopefully by next October or November," said Roberts.

"Of course, that depends on if we get the funding from the city."

The Central Okanagan Four Pillars Coalition was formed in response to
requests from downtown businesses to do something about the burgeoning
street drug scene in downtown Kelowna.

It seeks to emulate the Four Pillars approach in Vancouver which is based
on equal parts enforcement, treatment, prevention and harm reduction for
street drug users.