CITY MUM ON DRUG DEBATE

After weeks of discussion and debate about substance abuse treatment in the
Lower Mainland, a city report released this week concluded that neither
staff nor council are in any position to be making demands for change from
the Fraser Health Authority.

"Council and staff do not have the expertise - nor access to all relevant
information - which would be required to comment on how addictions
treatment programs in the FHA should be delivered," stated the report,
which was presented to council Monday night by the city's planning department.

"Given this fact, and the somewhat conflicting information and views which
have emerged from this review, staff propose that specific recommendations
from the city to the FHA not be made at this time."

Council has been pondering a call for action by the FHA since first hearing
in early January of funding woes at Charlford House, a women's recovery
home located in north Burnaby.

The following week they received a presentation from Rock Chalifour, an
emergency psychiatric nurse at Royal Columbian Hospital and spokesman for
the Addictions Treatment Advocacy Group.

At the time Chalifour warned a lack of detox beds in the Fraser Health
Authority - just 22 serving all communities between Burnaby and Boston Bar
- - was allowing the region's drug problems to rage out of control.

"The Fraser Health Authority has spent $440 million on treating
drug-related illnesses and only $2 million to treat the disease of
addiction itself," Chalifour said at the time.

He alleged that addiction treatment funding has been cut by anywhere
between $750,000 and $1.2 million since the FHA assumed jurisdiction of the
programs from the province in 2001.

"With addiction there are enormous costs to our courts, policing and health
services _ and this money could be better spent."

Since the B.C. Liberals came into power in May 2001, Burnaby city council
has taken tough stances against the government's perceived plans for B.C.'s
liquor distribution system, B.C. Hydro and ICBC.

But this time council won't be making any hard-line recommendations to
Victoria or the FHA - an unusual move considering critics have often
likened Burnaby's NDP-dominated council to the "unofficial opposition" to
the B.C. Liberal government.

But while no formal call will be sent out from the city to the FHA or the
government at this time, the city's councillors were more than prepared to
acknowledge that the system needs work.

"Looking at the system as a whole, we're looking at uncertainty _ we have a
whole problem here that goes beyond addictions treatment," said Coun. Dan
Johnston, chair of the city's social issues committee.

Johnston called the management priorities of the FHA into question, namely
its need to have "10 people in its communications department."

He also noted that the health delivery system had been impacted by the
FHA's "three or four corporate restructurings" in recent years.

"We have to keep an eye on this - we're going down a very bad slope here,"
Johnston said, referring to the downloading of provincial responsibilities
onto the health regions, municipalities and non-profit agencies.

"We're dumping onto the backs of the people who can least afford it."

Coun. Lee Rankin admitted that while the system needs work, finding a
solution would be difficult.

"I can tell you from my experience in my professional life there is a need
for both residential and outpatient services," said Rankin, a lawyer by trade.

"I'd be at a loss to say what an appropriate balance is."

Coun. Pietro Calendino, however, believes that outpatient services are not
the answer to the region's drug woes.

"Addiction by its very definition means they can not control their habits,
and having them on an outpatient basis means they're out there facing
temptation," Calendino said.

"Outpatient services do not work. They need complete control to keep the
drugs and alcohol out of their way."

Mayor Derek Corrigan pointed out that council also spoke out with concern
when the former NDP government "started to go towards outpatient services."

Doing so burdens B.C.'s municipalities with policing and homelessness
issues, Corrigan said, and also stresses the budgets of non-profit agencies.

"Each of those three changes trickle down to the municipalities - it's an
expensive problem," Corrigan said.