Vancouver council votes to fight downtown overdose prevention site

Two years ago, Guy Felicella received a proclamation from Mayor Ken Sim, naming a day in his honour for his work on harm reduction and recovery.

Now the harm reduction advocate wants to return the proclamation of May 29, 2024 as “Guy Felicella Day,” after Vancouver’s city council approved Sim’s urgent motion to “use all tools available” to prevent the opening of a downtown overdose prevention site that was announced by health officials on Tuesday.

Felicella said it was “heartbreaking” to hear Sim describe supervised consumption sites as a failure.

“I’m not like a political prop for the mayor and his team to say that they support something when they don’t,” said Felicella, who planned to return the proclamation on Thursday.

The motion passed by council on Tuesday directs city staff to conduct a “comprehensive review” of permits and approvals to make sure they comply with city bylaws and rules, telling staff to consider revoking permits or licences for the facility if “legally supportable.”

“The City of Vancouver has a responsibility to maintain public order, safety and the reasonable enjoyment of neighbourhoods,” and take steps against uses that “may materially impact surrounding residents and businesses,” the motion reads

Vancouver Coastal Health plans to open the facility at 900 Helmcken St., but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said local health officials would continue working to establish the facility in spite of the city’s opposition.

Overdose prevention sites were among the tools needed to keep people alive and help them heal and recover, she said.

The minister told reporters in the legislature on Wednesday that the operator would come up with a plan accounting for concerns of residents and businesses.

“But we will push forward, and we need to have these services in place,” she said.

Sim’s motion was approved along party lines, with all seven members of his ABC party in favour and the four other councillors against.

“Two overdose prevention sites in the neighbourhood have failed,” Sim told the council meeting. “They have created street disorder, safety concerns, open drug use, significant challenges for residents and businesses.”

He said council’s job is hold the provincial government accountable and “on the health-care file, the province is failing miserably.”

While both the municipal and the provincial governments have acknowledged a “significant mental health crisis” in the region, Sim said, the province hasn’t followed through on commitments to provide treatment beds.

“So, we are asking the province to help by doing their job,” Sim said. “We need a balanced approach, when it comes to care, recovery and public safety.”

Osborne said Sim “doesn’t have all the facts” when it comes to the additional resources that her government has invested in Vancouver through the Road to Recovery program launched in 2023.

“We are going to continue to do that,” she said. “Vancouver should be proud of the work that is being done there.”

Sim announced the motion just after Vancouver Coastal Health said it had signed a lease to begin operating at the new location for the Thomus Donaghy Overdose Prevention Site, “the only overdose prevention site open to the public in the Vancouver City Centre area,” starting in June. The previous permanent location closed on Jan. 31.

In announcing the new location, the health authority cited a 2016 ministerial order signed by then health minister Terry Lake in the first year of the public health emergency that the province declared over the overdose crisis.

It orders regional health authorities to provide overdose prevention services in any place they are needed “as determined by the level of overdose related morbidity and mortality.”

Vancouver Coastal Health said Tuesday that the new location has the second-highest overdose death rate in its region.

Osborne also cited the order in her comments, saying overdose prevention sites represent an important part of the continuum care available for people. “It’s helping to avoid pressure on our emergency rooms, on ambulance resources, on the city’s own resources,” she said, while offering to sit down and talk with the city.

Coun. Sean Orr, who voted against the motion, told the council meeting that it violates the ministerial order.

“Even if one agrees with the mayor on the premise that Vancouver Coastal Health and the B.C. government should focus on mandatory care, blocking this (site) from opening means certain death for individuals, who are using substances in the city centre, while we wait for this shift to magically happen.”

ABC Coun. Peter Meiszner said the city was only notified by Vancouver Coastal Health of the new downtown site last week “despite many promises about community consultation.”

He questioned the health’s authority decision to partner with RainCity Housing to run the site, saying it had a “dismal” track-record of running overdose prevention sites.

“In fact, the last two were shuttered,” he said. “So, we have been down this road before.”

He said overdose prevention sites encouraged drug use and “predatory drug dealing,” because they don’t include treatment or recovery options.

“Vancouver Coastal Health knows full well, that these sites have been and are a nightmare for neighbourhoods,” he said.

RainCity Housing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Felicella, who describes himself as a survivor of addiction, gangs and homelessness, said comments by the mayor and his ABC colleagues showed they have no idea what it takes to recover from toxic illicit drugs.

He said that people will die if they don’t have access to a supervised consumption site.

“I don’t want kids to see people using substances. But also, at the same time, I also know how important these sites are for reducing public consumption,” said Felicella.

— With files by Nono Shen in Vancouver

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2026.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press