Mayor Gregor Robertson will chair a nation-wide task force consisting of 11 other Canadian mayors that will focus exclusively on the opioid crisis.
Robertson made the announcement Friday afternoon, noting the group’s primary mandate will be lobbying senior governments.
“We’re going to be working together as mayors to press on the provincial and federal governments to step up and treat this like the national health emergency that it is,” Robertson said.
The Big City Mayors’ caucus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities represents 22 of Canada’s largest cities. Robertson didn’t specify which other cities will be represented, nor were timelines presented for the group’s first meeting.
The group will share info and staffing resources as part of the project, with Robertson noting meetings are scheduled “very soon” with the federal government.
A record-breaking number of people – 914 — died in B.C. last year of a drug overdose, with 215 of those dying in Vancouver, according to statistics released by the B.C. Coroners Service in mid-January.
The total number of deaths was a 79 per cent increase over 2015, when 510 people died province-wide, with 134 of those in Vancouver. Surrey saw 108 deaths in 2016 (up from 76) and 66 were recorded in Victoria (up from 18).
Fentanyl was linked to 60 per cent of the deaths recorded between January and October of last year. Vancouver police also confirmed carfentanil, an opioid that is 100 times more toxic than fentanyl, was linked to the overdose death of a 39-year-old man in November.
Last week council approved $3.5 million in spending to combat the opioid crisis. A committee meeting slated for Feb. 8 will see council debate whether to top up those funds up by an additional $220,000. If approved, that money would come from the 2017 operating budget’s contingency reserves.
Those funds would be used for “peer based initiatives addressing impacts of the overdose crisis in single room occupancy (SRO) hotels and shelters,” according to a city staff report.
“It’s impacting other cities across Canada now and the death toll is climbing,” Robertson said.
-- With files from Mike Howell.
