Christy puts up $10 million for what?

[flamingfingers]

The B.C. government is spending $10 million to help prevent illicit drug overdoses and deaths, with half of the funding going towards creating a new centre on substance abuse.

Premier Christy Clark says the centre will focus on addiction research, education for health care providers and providing guidance for clinical care.

But what about actual FACILITIES for drug treatment beds for youth - down 25% to a lousy 89 beds!!

The other $5 million will fund strategies identified by the provincial Joint Task Force on Overdose Prevention, including issuing naloxone and naloxone training to police to treat overdoses in emergency situations.

,
Police are expected to identify and deal with people who have mental health problems because the community is lacking the resources to cope with these individuals BEFORE they become involved in policing problems and NOW she is expecting the police to also identify/diagnose and TREAT drug overdoses!!

Never mind the police using their training to identify/apprehend and deal with break-ins, assaults, drug wars, car accidents, traffic control and preventing illicit drugs from proliferating - now they are being charged as front-line health care workers!!

Not a very efficient use of $10 MILLION dollars which could be better spent on community resources, outreach workers and care facilities for those at risk.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#177059

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3780058

[twobits]

And if the Gov't were NDP, you would bragging about 10 mill being spent in exactly the same why and calling it progressive governance.

[sooperphreek]

nothing wrong with calling "pandering" what it is for votes.....

[rustled]

...

But what about actual FACILITIES for drug treatment beds for youth - down 25% to a lousy 89 beds!!
...

Police are expected to identify and deal with people who have mental health problems because the community is lacking the resources to cope with these individuals BEFORE they become involved in policing problems and NOW she is expecting the police to also identify/diagnose and TREAT drug overdoses!!

Never mind the police using their training to identify/apprehend and deal with break-ins, assaults, drug wars, car accidents, traffic control and preventing illicit drugs from proliferating - now they are being charged as front-line health care workers!!

Not a very efficient use of $10 MILLION dollars which could be better spent on community resources, outreach workers and care facilities for those at risk.

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#177059

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3780058

I agree with much of this, flamingfingers.

As with the money indiscriminately dumped into the education system, it reeks of bureaucratic job-saving action and poor management based in an incredible lack of awareness of what's actually happening in the real world.

Where I disagree is laying all the blame entirely at Clark's feet. Yes, she needs to quit listening to idiots, and yes, she certainly needs better advisers. But I've always thought it was naive to assume the leader was going to know everything about everything, especially in their first term. No leader can, which is why they must surround themselves with well-informed people. Not people with the right paper credentials. People who actually do understand the industries, services, etc. they are supposed to represent. No one with any real experience in education or dealing with the mental health issues on our streets would be wasting our money the way they are wasting it this pre-election year. They'd be doing their best to fund real solutions, not window-dressing for votes.

Behind the scenes, heads should be rolling when Clark finds herself acting on such poor advice. Something to consider is that regardless of who is in power, too many of these idiots will weasel their way into staying on, earning ridiculous wages for shuffling papers and giving out advice that shows they clearly shouldn't be in the position they're in. I think we all know how good many managers are at passing the buck.

While we should be disgusted when any government buys our votes with our own money, too often we overlook the root causes of why the money's being wasted on such a grand scale. Rational people know we can't fix these problems by indiscriminately throwing money at them, but that's all these fools seem to be doing. Calling for Clark's head isn't going to change their behaviour. But if she doesn't call for their heads and start getting a better grip on who's worth keeping and who's not, replacing them with better choices, she's no kind of leader. And that's when we call for hers. She gets replaced with someone who needs to learn the ropes, and the whole ugly, wasteful game behind the scenes continues.

[Hurtlander]

You made some good points rustled. It's just to bad that the circus act we call the government of BC doesn't have a viable alternative running against them.

[Urbane]

You made some good points rustled. It's just to bad that the circus act we call the government of BC doesn't have a viable alternative running against them.

I'm not as convinced as I was a few months ago, or even a few weeks ago, that next year's election is a foregone conclusion. There's a reason that the government has moved to provide money to keep some rural schools open. There's a reason for the $10 million drug program and there's a reason for the flip-flop on the Vancouver real estate tax. The Liberals have internal polls that likely show them in a very tight race with the NDP. Many people out there, like many people on these forums, are tired of the shenanigans.

As Keith Baldrey pointed out recently campaigns do matter. Adrian Dix can attest to that but it just might be Christy Clark attesting to it next year. We'll see. She's still the favourite to win another term but I wouldn't be counting out John Horgan just yet. He'll have to convince people that he isn't going to say no to every proposed resource development and that he won't do things to damage a relatively strong economy. Can he do it? I'm doubtful. Very doubtful but campaigns do matter and the Liberals are long past their "best before" date.