INJECTION SITE TEMPORARY-MAYOR

Mayor Sam Sullivan will not lobby the federal government for another
supervised injection site because the ruling Conservatives don't
favour a second site.

Sullivan said he tailors his approach to drug initiatives, such as
prescribing legal drugs to addicts, around the fact that Prime Stephen
Harper and his party question the success of Insite in the Downtown
Eastside.

Opened in September 2003 under the federal Liberals and the COPE-led
council of former mayor Larry Campbell, Insite is the only legal site
in North America.

"I've tried to structure my proposals around the thinking of people in
Ottawa, as well as the needs of people with drug addictions," Sullivan
told the Courier Wednesday. "Certainly, it's clear to me that there
isn't a great enthusiasm for this technique, and I actually share the
view that we need ultimately to have different and new innovative
approaches."

Sullivan, a member of the NPA with close ties to the Conservatives,
said he doesn't want to shut down Insite. The operating agreement with
the federal government expires in December, and the mayor wants it
open for at least another two years, maybe longer.

He noted research indicates clients of the site are being directed to
treatment, transmission of diseases between addicts is down and no one
has died in the facility since it opened. Vancouver Coastal Health,
which operates Insite in conjunction with the PHS Community Services
Society, claims an average of 600 injections per day occur at the
facility on East Hastings.

"I don't think [its closing] should be based on an arbitrary date,"
Sullivan said. "It should be based on when it's not needed. I have
always looked at this site as a temporary measure, just like I look at
needle exchanges as temporary measures."

The mayor said he's focused on his proposal to give prescription
medication to up to 800 drug-addicted criminals in the Downtown
Eastside. Inner Change, a non-profit created to write the proposal,
has yet to send the paperwork to Health Canada for approval.

Sullivan said Insite could be used as a "recruitment centre" for what
he calls his Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment program, or
CAST. The type of prescription drugs to be used, the cost of the
program and the doctors who will prescribe the medication haven't been
finalized.

Drugs took up most of a half hour interview allotted to the Courier as
the mayor reflected this week on his first 18 months in office. He's
at the halfway point before the civic election in November 2008.

His biggest achievements, he said, were introducing "Project Civil
City" and the "Ecodensity" plan. Project Civil City aims to reduce
homelessness, the open drug market and aggressive panhandling by 50
per cent by 2010. Ecodensity essentially means denser
neighbourhoods-more condos, smaller living quarters-to accommodate the
city's growth.

The mayor believes his lobbying led the provincial government to
recently purchase 10 single-room occupancy hotels for social housing
and to the opening of a community court in the Downtown Eastside.

His biggest challenge, he said, occurred shortly after the election.
Sullivan said the four Vision Vancouver councillors and COPE Coun.
David Cadman were upset about the NPA regaining the majority on council.

That change in government led opposition councillors to act as
"obstructionists," he said. He said council stayed up until 4:30 one
morning debating the 2006 operating budget.

"It was not conducive to coming to good decisions."

Vision Vancouver was quick to issue its own assessment of Sullivan's
time in office by congratulating him on "18 months of
ineffectiveness." The party slammed Sullivan and the NPA for hiking
taxes by almost 15 per cent, cutting social housing at the Southeast
False Creek project and refusing to put a moratorium on conversions of
single-room occupancy hotels.

Vision Coun. Raymond Louie said the "obstructionist" tag is unfair. He
said the long budget debate was necessary because of the significance
of the cuts and the lack of public consultation.

Louie told the Courier the mayor's claims that he won 1,300 units of
social housing for the city and the new community court stretch the
truth because they were both provincial government-led
initiatives.

Louie said the mayor's comments on Insite and his prescription drug
proposal are confusing, and that Sullivan contradicts himself from day
to day. Louie believes the mayor is willing to trade with the
Conservatives their approval of the CAST program for the closure of
Insite.

Louie wondered why the CAST initiative has not been brought before
council. "Why is it controlled outside the public realm?"

Sullivan will seek re-election in November 2008.