The House Leader of the Opposition B.C. Conservatives has described the “unsurmountable” personal impact of the toxic drug crisis, which she says claimed the lives of two of her brothers, a niece and a nephew.
A’aliya Warbus says that just last week she attended a memorial for one brother who died from “a lethal dose of drugs” a year ago.
She says a niece “died alone in a tent,” while her 13-year-old nephew died last fall after overdosing on drugs in his bed as his mother slept in the next room.
Warbus, who is the daughter of former lieutenant-governor Steven Point, was speaking during question period in the B.C. Legislature where she renewed calls for a public inquiry into what she called the “failed experiment of safe supply.”
Her comments come after the NDP government announced a major revamp of its safer-supply anti-addiction program by converting it to a “witnessed-only” model, in which users are watched as they consume prescribed opioids.
Warbus says the government “not only failed to stop the flow of fentanyl” but “inflated the market with so-called safe supply.”
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B.C.’s Health Minister Josie Osborne offered “sincere condolences” to Warbus, saying her experiences were “difficult to imagine.”
She says bringing down the death rate from toxic drugs is one of the government’s top priorities and that prescribed alternatives are one way to help people get the support they need.
More than 16,000 people have died in British Columbia since the toxic drug crisis was declared a public health emergency in April 2016.
Last year’s death toll of 2,253 people was down 13 per cent, lower than any year since 2020.
