By Cheryl Jahn

Naloxone pilot program coming

Aug 23, 2022 | 2:56 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The City has eight Bylaw Officers and two Outreach workers who patrol the downtown on a regular basis. Beginning this fall, the City will try on the idea of those ten people carrying naloxone kits and being trained to administer naloxone under extenuating circumstances.

“We want to be very clear, this is still an emergency services function by either the Prince George Fire Rescue Service or the BC Ambulance Service,” explains Adam Davey, the Director of Public Safety. “The intent is, in that rare circumstance where the 911 call goes and perhaps Prince George Fire Rescue is on a call and BC Ambulance is on another call, there’s just that gap.”

Northern Health has the highest rates of toxicity deaths, at 53 deaths per 100,000 people, in the province. The program is targetting the downtown specifically. But Councillor Cori Ramsay noted the issue of overdose is not restricted to just downtown.

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“We know that overdoses are not just happening in the downtown. Yes, they’re prevalent in the downtown but they’re happening across our community. So when the report does come back, outlining how the pilot project is going to work, I will be looking for whether or not that’s just the downtown team or our entire community being resourced with this pilot project.”

Numerous peer communities are also looking at the same thing, though there are no “best practices.” But the fact of the matter is, as was noted by a number of Councillors, this whole thing is being looked at because the Province is not adequately funding the agency responsible for handling this sort of thing. The BC Ambulance Service.

“This is a band-aid to a complex problem that we need support from the Province on. We definitely need to continue our advocacy efforts to get the support we need. If we had the support from the Province, the health services and the addictions services that we desperately need, there wouldn’t be the need for this pilot project.”

After the year, Administration will assess performance, costs and benefits before deciding on whether to extend the program or not.