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Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart says both Victoria and Ottawa must heed his city’s calls for more funding and substantive policy changes to stem the death toll of overdoses from illicit drugs.

“I’ll keep yelling until we get the help we need here,” he said of the provincial and federal governments’ role. “It’s too much for the city to handle on its own, and I’m hearing that from mayors across Canada.”

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Last week, Stewart’s overdose emergency task force endorsed expanding a safer prescription supply of opioids and decriminalizing drug possession while requested millions in funding, measures he said provincial and federal authorities are “skittish” to act on.

Stewart said requests to the province to fund two recent project proposals went unanswered and that little federal funding has made it to Vancouver, which he calls the “epicentre” of Canada’s overdose crisis.

Last week, his council voted to request millions in funding from the federal government, including $1.3 million to fund VSB resiliency programs for youth.

He said city revenue isn’t enough to address the crisis when added strain on emergency services is factored in.

“It hits the road here,” he said. “I was a federal MP for seven years, and most of the debate at the House of Commons is theoretical — it’s about giant pots of money. Here, it’s on the ground.”

Photo by Gerry Kahrmann / PNG files

Safe supply entails prescribing or distributing drugs to users, either in a therapy setting or as an alternative to street-level drugs that could be contaminated with fentanyl or other additives.

In April, a report from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry urged the provincial government to decriminalize drug possession.

Last year, federal chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said the government was working with provinces to explore a “safer supply” through opioid substitution therapies, wherein legal drugs are prescribed as an alternative to illicit ones often contaminated with fentanyl or other deadly substances

Over 1,500 deaths occurred in B.C. last year as a result of illicit drugs, and while the death rate has dipped in 2019 the actual number of overdoses has not.

“Almost all the illegal opioids circulating, at least in Vancouver, are contaminated with fentanyl,” said Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical officer Dr. Patricia Daly.