Mayor insists he will seek fourth term
Mayor Gregor Robertson was insistent last Thursday that he will seek a fourth term at city hall despite his communications director leaving in February for a job in Ottawa and his chief of staff set to step down at the end of this month.
Robertson stated his intention to seek re-election after news broke that longtime chief of staff Mike Magee will become “special advisor” to the mayor for four months, before scaling back his role later this year.
He said Magee will focus on ensuring Vancouver gets its share of available federal dollars for infrastructure projects, particularly transit and affordable housing. He will continue to earn his annual $120,000-plus salary.
“We want to make sure there’s a steady, strong voice for Vancouver working with our Ottawa partners,” Robertson told reporters after stepping out of a Vancouver Police Board meeting. “Mike’s done lots of that in this past year in building good relations, so we want to continue that work with Ottawa.”
Asked whether he was next to go to Ottawa, where he has built a strong relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals, Robertson said “I have no plans to go to Ottawa,” adding that he will seek a fourth term.
“That’s my intention – yeah,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Robertson was first elected in 2008 and was re-elected in 2011 and 2014.
–Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier
Epidemic of overdoses prompts public health emergency
BC’s health officer has declared a public health emergency in reaction to the increasing number of overdose drug deaths in the province that he says are on pace to exceed 700 by the end of the year.
“This is, frankly, a crisis,” said Kendall at a news conference Thursday in Victoria, where he was joined by Health Minister Terry Lake and deputy provincial health officer Bonnie Henry. “These deaths have a serious impact on public health and the numbers are unusual and unexpected, which is the criteria for declaring such an emergency under the Public Health Act.”
Kendall pointed out overdose drug deaths have climbed steadily in BC in the past six years. In 2010, there were 211 deaths. That increased to 474 last year, with 121 recorded in Vancouver. About one-third of total deaths were linked to fentanyl. More than 200 overdose deaths were recorded in the first three months of this year.
“At this rate, the total for 2016 could exceed 700, or even 800,” he said, noting the increases occurred despite what he described as “heroic” efforts by public health officials, emergency services workers, health providers and organizers of drug awareness campaigns.
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer welcomed Kendall’s announcement and said his department will share what information it can to help reduce overdoses and drug deaths.
Mayor Gregor Robertson said it was of “grave concern” to hear Kendall call a health emergency. He said the city will cooperate with health officers to help reduce deaths and overdoses. Vancouver is the only city in Canada with two legal supervised drug injection sites and developed the so-called four pillars drug strategy to help reduce the spike in deaths in the 1990s.
“We’re seeing the impacts and fatalities on our streets,” the mayor said. “We’ll be working with [Vancouver] Coastal Health to make sure we’re doing everything we can to support the efforts to bring those overdoses down and deal with the fentanyl – it’s prolific now in drugs on the street.”
–Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier
