St. Paul's Hospital

In front of us is the Butterfly, a luxury condo building with many unsold units in a city where the cost of housing has been stubbornly high.

Just a block away is St. Paul's Hospital, an older medical building that the previous mayor wanted to turn into an involuntary treatment centre.

Vancouver is still in the throes of an addiction crisis.

Two emblems only a few hundred metres apart of the challenges ahead for new mayor Pete Fry.

The other big issue facing the newly elected mayor of Vancouver is drug use.

As we were talking, the results of a plebiscite came in.

It asked Vancouverites whether they want the city to be tougher on open-air hard drug use and if the old St. Paul's Hospital should be turned into an involuntary treatment centre.

Two-thirds of Vancouverites voted yes.

Really, the municipality has... no jurisdiction over either of these things in a meaningful way, but it is a message to be sent to the provincial government from the electorate.

So of the people who voted, it was an overwhelming vote for more crackdown on public use of illicit drugs, as well as a want for there to be a renewed St. Paul's Hospital of the old St. Paul's Hospital site to house 100 voluntary and 100 involuntary care beds for people who are struggling with mental health and addiction issues that might make them a danger to themselves or others.

And so, you know, the numbers are clear.

Yeah.

And he's like, what are we doing here? And Pete Fry said something very, I thought, very astute in how he kind of came down the middle.

Because he's like not...

He's not, okay, we need St. Paul's Hospital and we need to get people into involuntary care today.

He mentioned that, and I'm paraphrasing here.

And I learned quite a bit in addition to But learning that, you know, hanging out with people smarter than me is the way to continue to advance my career.

So I really enjoyed my time at St. Paul's Hospital.

Amazing.

And after that, you owned multiple studios.

And I should say that the province has already committed to secure care beds.

We have the new St. Paul's Hospital that's expected to open in about four months, and they've committed to 100 new secure care beds.

And similarly, there's a new purpose-built facility just outside of downtown Vancouver that is proposing treatment and recovery and secure beds as well.

So we have those actually already kind of coming online.

And I think there is a role for the city to step in more proactively and ensure that we have better places for people to go.

And that includes even just things like basic access to services and toilets and hopefully the kind of diversion that can get folks into treatment and really take a different, more assertive role in supporting some of the most vulnerable people who are probably the least safe in our city

And just to make it clear for our listeners, the questions on the plebiscite, the one I was referencing is, yes, it is under provincial jurisdiction, but the question is asking if the city of Vancouver should formally ask the province to do more, convert portions of the old St. Paul's Hospital or another similar site to create more beds, as well as the other question is whether the city of Vancouver... should strengthen its laws to forbid open-air hard drug use in public spaces.

But we should also mention you're the city's first ever Green Party mayor.

Mm-hmm

... with the province right now to put beds into the former, well, which is now the St. Paul's Hospital.

So first and foremost, what you've shared is working with the province, and we have seen a complete deterioration of the mayor of Vancouver's relationship with the province.

You know what they say? The federal government has all the money, the provincial government has all the power, and the municipal government has all the problems.

One, for example, that I'll give is Squatch Eyes.

Kinda close to where St. Paul's Hospital is, we have a, a portal there.

And yeah, we call it Squatch Eyes, but there's a story there about how a h- a, a hunter went and harpooned a sea lion, and he lost it and its sights.

It, it, he, he went underwater and, uh, he thought he'd had it, but his spear was still stuck in it, and he lost his spear.

First one is if they would like for the municipal government to advocate for a van on drug consumption in the city, in open spaces.

And then the second question is to advocate for the provincial government to give them funding so they can add 100 beds for involuntary care in St. Paul's Hospital downtown.

Those are the main two questions.

And that's maybe not the best explanation to both of them.