Trail’s mayor is hoping to kickstart a stalled proposal to add more detox and rehabilitation programs in the West Kootenay.
Colleen Jones said she and city councillors raised the issue with Health Minister Josie Osborne, who visited the community this week.
Trail, Castlegar, and Nelson put forward a joint resolution at last year’s Union of BC Municipalities convention, which was endorsed. But Jones said they have not heard anything since.
“So we wanted to see if there had been any discussions or thoughts towards it,” she said. “We wanted to find out what the next steps were to make sure that was still on the books and being looked at.”
Jones said they used their meeting with Osborne to stress that more regional detox services are “still desperately needed in this area” to address addiction. She said that is in addition to an eight-bed withdrawal management program that Axis Resources provides in Castlegar.
Jones said they plan to set up a meeting between Osborne’s staff and the three municipalities.
“We’re just going to make sure that we can move this conversation forward, whatever that looks like. We don’t want this to fall off to the side. We want to make sure they’re still looking at our region and know that we still need support.”
In addition, Jones said they discussed BC Housing’s suspension of a supportive housing project for Trail due to lack of funding.
Jones was pleased that Osborne toured the new Lower Columbia Community Health Centre, where Jones said “amazing” work is being done, but help is needed to add other services. She said she appreciated that Osborne, a former mayor of Tofino, understands the issues rural communities face related to health care.
Osborne’s visit was the second time a cabinet minister has been in Trail in as many weeks, following a tour by Housing Minister Christine Boyle. Interior Health CEO Sylvia Weir was also in the area. Jones said keeping Trail on their radar helps.
“I’m hoping we do get some services that our health workers are looking for and that our community needs,” she said. “I think it’s important that we keep bringing them here, showing our community, and just keeping us in mind.”
(CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this story may have left the impression that there are no regional detox services in the West Kootenay. In fact, Axis Resources does provide such a service in Castlegar.)
