BC Conservative leader pledges to shut down supervised consumption sites

BC Conservative leader John Rustad dropped a major policy plan Sunday, pledging to eliminate supervised drug consumption sites across B.C. and replace them with intake centres for treatment and recovery.

“Look at what’s happened in British Columbia the last seven years, where overdoses have gone up, it’s pretty clear when something is not working, you need to be able to be brave enough to do something new,” he said at a rally in Surrey Sunday evening.

Reaction to the news was swift and varied. Many expressed support online on X, while others, including Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau, condemned the plan.

“I am shocked and I am horrified that John Rustad is now choosing to politicize health services that are desperately needed,” she said Monday.

There are 48 supervised consumption sites across B.C. for injection or inhalation.

The issue has become a lightning rod for controversy in some communities, including Richmond, where a proposed consumption site was shot down after public backlash.

“Safe consumption sites or supervised injection sites have become a real flashpoint in this election,” said Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley

Guy Felicella, a harm reduction and recovery advocate, met Rustad earlier this month and thought the Conservative leader was on board with keeping the sites, and was disappointed by the plan that he sees as a reversal.

He himself overdosed six times at supervised consumption sites and says shutting them will cost lives.

“Not only will it cause more overdose deaths, but we’ll have more public consumption.” he said Monday. “We’ll have more public safety issues.”

So far this year, 1,365 British Columbians have died from toxic drugs. Zero have died at an overdose prevention site.

Rustad was asked about Felicella on Sunday night, and expressed relief that he’d survived, but also advocated for a new approach.

“After the first time, government actually should have stepped in and put him into mandatory treatment and recovery so he didn’t overdose five more times,” said Rustad.

But NDP leader David Eby, campaigning in Langley Sunday, accused Rustad of playing politics.

“These sites save lives, and now this week he’s playing politics with this man’s life,” said Eby. “He wants to close that site that saved that man’s life, that gave him his chance to get into recovery.”

Rustad says he'd likely keep a few sites open on an emergency basis while they’re being transitioned to recovery and treatment centres, but only temporarily.