Eby’s office accused of interfering in VCH’s Richmond overdose prevention site decision

After protests and days of charged public hearings earlier this year, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) explained it would not move forward with a possible supervised consumption site in Richmond, and a city councillor claims the proposal never really stood a chance.

Former B.C. minister of public safety and now Richmond Coun. Kash Heed says Premier David Eby directed VCH to not move forward with the proposal before the council made its decision.

Heed says he was shocked to learn that Eby’s office directed it the same day, Feb. 13, that council voted in favour of continuing conversations around the potential site.

“I had a lot of respect for him coming from the area he did in the Downtown Eastside, understanding the problems with some of our public policies related to dealing with drug addiction and mental health issues and poverty issues,” he told CityNews Wednesday.

The day after the council voted in favour of the plan, Feb. 14, VCH released a statement saying it was not going to move forward with the possibility of an OPS.

Documents first obtained by Glacier Media through a freedom of information request have led Heed to believe Eby interfered with the decision. Heed provided these documents to CityNews.

The documents reveal that Eby’s office drafted a statement on behalf of VCH before the council had reached its decision.

Heed says, and the documents confirm, that the council, given the power they have as a municipal government, had not even passed the motion before a decision was already made.

“What I subsequently learned is that the premier’s office had directed Vancouver Coastal Health authority on the second day before the hearing had even started to craft up a communication piece indicating that they would not be moving in this direction,” Heed said.

The document shows an email from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions that states: “The Premier’s Office has directed us to direct VCH to issue a statement to quell some of the misinformation surrounding the proposed Richmond SCS [safe consumption site]. Below is a frame for the statement for your team’s input.”

Part of the input that the ministry referred to included explicit directions on what to do “if the motion passes.”

“At this time we don’t believe a stand-alone overdose prevention site is the best option to support people struggling with addictions in Richmond and will not be moving forward with one in this specific case,” the direction from the ministry stated.

More than one hundred people spoke in front of Richmond council during the public hearings. Residents appeared in front of the council, in-person and virtually, and expressed concerns that it would have negative impacts on their neighbourhood.

Shouting, clapping, and booing were involved from the public.

Heed believes that the premier politicized the issue rather than listening to a debate on a health issue.

“The premier’s party holds three seats in Richmond, clearly based on the vocal minority that turned up and was yelling and screaming on the grounds of City Hall, he determined that politically it would not be in his favour to support something like that,” Heed said.

However, on Wednesday, Eby refuted the claims, telling reporters the decision did not come from him or his office.

“Vancouver Coastal Health had decided that they were not going ahead with that,” he said. “They hadn’t communicated that to the public, so we encouraged them to share their decisions with the public.”

-With files from Michael Williams, Pippa Norman, and Charlie Carey.