Articles related to advocacy, legislation and news relevant to local governments about the opioid crisis, harm reduction, supportive housing and more.
Julian Daly, CEO of Our Place shelter society in Victoria, discusses a strategic shift in addressing street disorder by prioritizing healthcare as the first response. Julian was a panelist on the Disordered Downtown session earlier in the week.
Among the interrelated complex social issues being discussed at Convention – street disorder, housing, homelessness, mental health and addiction, crime – is the healthcare policy around involuntary care. Dr. Daniel Vigo, the Province’s chief advisor on toxic drugs and concurrent disorders, spoke at the session Disordered Downtown: Rethinking Care for Those in Need. We caught up with him and Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog afterwards to learn more.
Councillor Brian Frenkel from the District of Vanderhoof is helping to put together an informal network of local elected officials for peer-to-peer mental health support. A session on Monday – Charting the course to support mental health in elected leaders – focused on the issue, with special guest Corey Hirsch. The network and Monday session are a continuation from a 2024 Convention session that focused on the growing need for support for elected officials.
UBCM has provided a submission to the Commission of Inquiry into Community Events Safety in B.C. The submission outlines several issues for the Commission’s consideration as it examines measures respecting public security and safety at community events. The Commission was established on May 7, 2025, following the tragic events that took place during the April 26th Lapu-Lapu Day Festival in Vancouver.
The Province is seeking stakeholder feedback regarding its ‘Liquor to Go’ policy, which allows certain businesses to sell liquor for off-site consumption with the purchase of a meal for takeout or delivery. Local governments are invited to provide their input on this policy by responding to a provincial engagement paper by August 7, 2025.
Local governments are invited to participate in the Ministry of Health’s no-cost nasal naloxone pilot project. This is a one-time initiative for publicly funded organizations in settings where there are barriers to administering injectable naloxone and where a toxic drug event may occur.
With a trade war now underway, the BC Government introduced a budget earlier today that continues to invest in provincial services while attempting to shore up the provincial economy. Incremental new spending has been targeted for local government priorities, including homelessness response, addiction treatment, street disorder and affordable housing. Longer-term challenges lay ahead, however, with a growing debt and still unknown impacts from tariffs to the provincial economy and government revenue.
On December 19, 2024, the provincial government repealed the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act, which was passed by the Legislative Assembly in November 2023, but was not brought into force due to a court injunction.
Across BC, local governments are taking action to maintain public safety and address mental health and addiction issues. Every year the UBCM Convention plenary session delves into an issue being faced by all local governments, rural, urban and in between. This year the focus is the complex intersection of the toxic drug crisis, public use concerns and the impacts on communities, and their police, fire departments, and other local first responders. UBCM spent 5 minutes with one panelist, the CAO of Fort St. John Milo MacDonald to learn more.
UBCM will no longer seek intervenor status on a court case between the provincial government and the Harm Reduction Nurses Association (HRNA) concerning Bill 34, Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act.