LACK OF SUPPORT NEEDLES LOWE

Capital Ideas

At the risk of making excuses for Victoria's mayor, I have to admit
feeling a pang of sympathy for Alan Lowe as he unveiled his new task
force on street issues.

What struck me most was Lowe's comment that "no one person, or agency,
or level of government can unilaterally bring about the change we need."

Victoria politicians spend a lot of time complaining about a lack of
help from other levels of government. But this time the mayor has a
point.

Lowe made street issues a focal point of his 2005 election campaign.
But halfway through the mandate he's run into some formidable
obstacles that can only be removed with federal and provincial help.

Four months from now, the task force will deliver an action plan,
complete with cost estimates, for addressing the aforementioned social
ills. Those plans are likely to include a safe-injection site similar
to the InSite pilot project in Vancouver.

But InSite was approved by the federal Liberals, who are no longer in
power.

Current Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it clear during his
Victoria visit last year that the Conservatives won't approve a
safe-injection site in Victoria.

After Harper headed back east last summer, the city, the Vancouver
Island Health Authority and the University of Victoria embarked on a
safe-injection site study that was supposed to be released this month.

Informed sources tell me the release has been delayed due to political
concerns.

Word is the document paints a negative picture of provincially funded
services for the street population, by way of academic benchmarks
comparing Victoria with other cities.

Details are sketchy, but it's a safe bet the study points out, for
example, that the province funds no residential treatment beds on
Vancouver Island. Which means our addicts go into detox for a few
days, have no place to live while they're on the road to long term
recovery, and quickly end up back on the street.

Since it's mostly provincial money funding the study, and acting on
the study's recommendation will likely cost the province even more
money, the province isn't in a hurry to have it released.

Lowe's task-force announcement would have carried more weight had it
coincided with the release of the safe injection site study, and
perhaps that was the original plan.

Another hint that the study's release was delayed at the last minute
came when its chief architect, UVic researcher Dr. Benedikt Fischer,
suddenly postponed a talk on "statistics pointing to clear and present
public health challenges in Victoria."

Fischer's "community dialogue" was supposed to take place last
Saturday. It's been rescheduled to June 27. The change was announced
one day after Lowe's announcement and one day before the event.

Also tied up in senior government maneuvering is the fate of
Victoria's needle exchange. Run by AIDS Vancouver Island, the facility
has outgrown its location at the corner of Cormorant and Blanshard
Street. Overflowing with IV drug users,the needle exchange has become
an eyesore and a magnet for seedy activity, putting pressure on city
council to help find a location.

Relocating the needle exchange is going to require provincial dollars,
yet this spring the health authority revealed that it would like to
shift $450,000 of AVI's funding out of Victoria to the north and
central Island.

Against that backdrop, the two organizations are negotiating a new
contract for the first time in three years.

Neither side will divulge whether funding for a new location is on the
table, and there's no word on how long the bargaining will continue.

The mayor's supporters in the business community would love to see the
needle exchange moved off the main drag. But unless some help is
forthcoming from the province, Lowe's hands are tied.

In a perfect world, we could solve two problems at once and include a
new needle exchange in our safe-injection-site pilot project. But the
Harper government has rendered that idea a non-starter.

Cleaning up street crime is another major focus of Lowe's agenda this
term, but that too is being hampered by high-level inertia.

The staggering number of drug-addicted repeat offenders on B.C.'s
streets cries out for fundamental changes in the way sentences are
handed down.

Attorney General Wally Oppal is launching a community court pilot
project later this summer that will offer reduced sentences to
offenders who agree to enter addiction treatment programs.

But the community court model would also require judges to hand down
stiffer penalties in order to facilitate that plea bargaining process,
and the judiciary doesn't like being told what to do.

Ironically, the Liberal government has pumped plenty of money into the
enforcement side of the equation to help police catch crooks.

But with weak sentencing provisions repeat offender just keep spinning
through the justice system's revolving door.

After last week's announcement, I realized why Lowe sounded a little
frustrated when I spoke with him a few days earlier.

"Everybody thinks I should solve these problems all by myself, but I
can't," he said.

This time, at least, it's not his fault.