There’s been a bit of a reprieve in the debacle over supportive recovery facilities for drug addicts in Osoyoos, but the matter certainly hasn’t been settled.
On Monday, just two hours before a public hearing, the town’s CAO Barry Romanko announced at council that the Brandon Jansen Memorial Recovery Centre (BJMRC) has decided not to locate in Osoyoos.
Nonetheless, the public hearing moved forward on a zoning bylaw that will permit such facilities in residential areas.
Council listened as resident after resident in a packed council chamber spoke about why this bylaw is a bad idea.
The bylaw was presented by the town’s administration in March as mere “housekeeping.” To reinforce this claim, it was lumped in with a couple of completely unrelated matters about RV storage and RV setbacks at campgrounds.
This was disingenuous. Clearly this bylaw was a direct result of the contacts with the BJMRC, which neither the town nor the Coquitlam-based for-profit business were transparent about.
The bylaw was rushed and flawed. How else to explain such provisions as a requirement that such a facility not be located within 250 metres of a school, without mention of any other factors affecting location?
Critically though, town administration was unaware until shortly before the public hearing that the province two years ago revised its Residential Care Regulation under the Community Care and Assisted Living Act to add residential care for those with substance dependence.
What that means is that a provincially licensed facility can locate in Osoyoos without the town being able to enforce any zoning control.
This left administration to explain that the proposed bylaw will only apply to unlicensed supportive recovery centres.
Coincidentally, we now learn from Daphne Bramham of the Vancouver Sun that neither the Brandon Jansen Foundation nor the BJMRC is licensed by Interior Health.
In fact, the foundation’s application to IH was rejected in November and the foundation hasn’t applied to the Assisted Living Registry.
We can’t speak to the treatment methods the BJMRC might use because President and CEO Michelle Jansen was more interested in (wrongly) accusing us of stalking than in doing an interview.
But problems have proliferated with unlicensed, unregulated “supportive recovery” facilities in such Lower Mainland communities as Surrey. Some are using questionable treatment methods. Some are merely switching addicts from one form of addiction to another, and reaping enormous profits by doing so.
One of the factors that may have persuaded the BJMRC to withdraw from Osoyoos was that the town followed up on complaints by neighbours that the business had jumped the gun and was operating ahead of proper zoning and a business license being in place.
The company insisted that any activity at the house was simply that of residential tenants.
The Osoyoos Times, however, heard multiple accounts from first-hand eye witnesses that there was more going on at 5 Bayview Crescent than simply residential activity.
On April 5, the B.C. Coroners Service released a report on the Death Review Panel about illicit drug overdoses. That report, ironically, looked at the death of Brandon Jansen, Michelle Jansen’s son, of a drug overdose at a treatment facility.
Among the report’s key findings was that “there are no provincial regulations for evidence-based standards for addiction treatment.”
Clearly the province has work to do and Osoyoos should wait for the province to act before rushing to bring unlicensed, unregulated facilities to this community.
Until that time, council should put this “housekeeping” bylaw on hold.
Maybe, however, it should go ahead and pass the portions dealing with RV storage and setbacks.
