Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jan 2003
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Jeff Bell, Times Colonist

POLICE, HEALTH CHIEFS MEET LOWE TO SWAP PARKADE CLEANUP IDEAS

Three top community figures put their heads together Wednesday to address 
growing concerns with drug addiction and social problems in downtown Victoria.

Victoria police Chief Paul Battershill and Vancouver Island Health 
Authority chief executive officer Rick Roger met with Victoria Mayor Alan 
Lowe at City Hall for about 90 minutes to ponder downtown issues including 
complaints about drug-related activity in the city-operated Johnson Street 
parkade.

Lowe said specific announcements will be made at a City Hall press 
conference on Jan. 31.

"At that time I hope to have a direction in which we will be going, and to 
try to look at solutions to the problem. Obviously there are some immediate 
issues we want to look at -- picking up needles, looking at continued 
enforcement and possible discussion of where and how we could create a 
'sobering' centre so that we could help some of those people in need."

Greater Victoria has about 1,500 to 2,000 intravenous drug users.

Roger said VIHA is very interested in inner-city health care, both in 
Victoria and Nanaimo, and is eager to "muster our forces" to deal with the 
various issues that have been identified. He said the rare meeting of a 
leading civic official, chief of police and health executive to deal with a 
single topic was a valuable exercise.

"There is no way that any one of those three parties could proceed on their 
own. This is a matter of developing a unified sense of what will work, and 
then trying to get everyone coalesced around the same objective."

Roger said he discovered how effective such a co-operative approach was 
when he worked on a similar initiative while serving in a high-level 
position as a health executive in Vancouver. He said there is more to 
addressing downtown problems than having additional funding.

"It would be useful to have more to invest in some of these issues, but 
we're mindful of the times we work in and we will redirect what we can to 
respond."

Agencies such as the Victoria Cool Aid Society, which operates the downtown 
Swift Street Community Health Centre, need to be consulted in reaching 
solutions, he said.

For Battershill, the will to examine the issues at hand from a number of 
angles is a good sign coming from the meeting.

"We looked at environmental issues, we looked at enforcement, we looked at 
access to health care. We've set short timelines, and everybody is very 
focused on trying to get things accomplished and also keep our eye on the 
longer-term vision."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager