Advocacy group calls for investigation into B.C.’s private recovery and treatment sector

Editor’s Note: The following story deals with sexual assault and may be distressing for some readers. If you or someone you know is in need of support, you can find province-specific centres, crisis lines, and services here.

A group advocating for rights and protections for people who use drugs is calling on the province to launch a full investigation of the private recovery and treatment sector, citing what it calls a system of abuse.

Leslie McBain with Moms Stop the Harm pointed to one example, an incident involving a contractor at two facilities in New Westminster. In May, former recovery services contractor Adam Haber was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual assault. This arrest followed an investigation that was launched after an anonymous Facebook group was started by people who outlined allegations against Haber.

McBain says it’s likely that there are cases of abuse and mismanagement across the province, but the extent of the issue is unknown.

“There’s been a pushback on people who are trying to be whistleblowers, people who have seen abuses or seen neglect or seen less-than-great operators and staff in the facilities,” McBain said. “And they have really been stonewalled in a way and just really ignored.”

McBain says with recovery centres receiving funding and subsidies from the B.C. government, the sector needs to be under stringent oversight and reporting requirements.

“If the government is subsidizing – in any way – any facilities, there should be stringent rules around reporting that we as taxpayers should know what is going on, and/or their successes or their abuses or their rules that need to be looked at,” she said.

Nicole Luongo, systems change coordinator with the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, says there is an incredible lack of transparency in the system around how much money is being directed to the treatment industry. She says there is also lack of transparency when it comes to “the extent to which ostensibly publicly funded treatment centres are actually run privately and for-profit, or at least quasi-hybrid public/private.”

“We have no insight into what actual outcomes look like at these centres,” she said. “They’re not required to report outcomes systematically.”

When asked about the issue, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside threw blame onto the former government under BC United, which was last in power in 2017 as the BC Liberals, saying they underfunded and ignored the sector.