Health ministers and first responders meet to address overdose crisis

At Vancouver's Fire Hall No. 2, the number of calls coming in related toopioid overdoses has jumped 30 per cent this year overlast.

"Our teams, we can't sustain that," said B.C. Minister of Health Terry Lake.

Lake and federal Health Minister Jane Philpott spoke at a meeting Thursday morning with the first responder community working in the Downtown Eastside.

The meeting, hosted by the City of Vancouver, was convenedto addressthe public health crisis related to the rising number of fentanyl overdose deaths across the province.

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According to the BCCoroners Service, from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2016, more than 555 people diedofapparent illicit drug overdoses in the province.

Fentanyl was involved in 61 per cent of those deaths.

More supervised injection sites

One of the questions at the meeting was the issue of Bill C-2, or the Respect for Communities Act.

Advocates argue the bill makes it difficult for community agencies and health authorities to create and maintain harm reduction sites because of its lengthy requirements.

Minister Philpottsaid the billwill require legislative changes, and repeated her message that the government isworking on a plan for the changes to be made.

"I've made it clear to my officials that I do not want any unnecessary barriers to supervised consumption sites in communities that asked for them," she said.

Although two safe injection sites currently exist in Vancouver, one at Insite and a smaller one at theDr. PeterCentre at St. Paul's Hospital,some community members believe they're not enough.

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Scott Gilbert lives in the Downtown Eastside and is a drug user. He believes Insiteneeds to increase its capacity, and the government needs to address users' basic human needs as well.

"I can take you on a quick little tour if you'd like through the alleys where (there's) tons of people where there's zero monitoring," said Gilbert.

"There isn't access to toilets, running water, hand sanitizer, electricity, light."

Vancouver city manager Sadhu Johnston said Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care have submitted applications for additional supervised injection sites in the city.