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‘They just made this agreement a few months ago. It’s crazy to me that they would breach it right away.’ — Vancouver resident Mike Wilson
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A proposed overdose prevention site that this week drew the ire of Vancouver’s mayor now faces the threat of a lawsuit over the local health authority’s duty to properly consult with the community, Postmedia has learned.
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Less than a year ago, Vancouver Coastal Health committed in a legal settlement to conduct community engagement before opening new overdose prevention sites.
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But the health authority is facing a new lawsuit over its alleged failure to follow through on that promise for the proposed Thomus Donaghy site at 900 Helmcken St., which it announced just days ago.
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Coastal Health’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Patricia Daly, is pushing back on those accusations, insisting on Thursday that the agency did nothing wrong. “There was definitely consultation, and we believe we’ve met our obligation.”
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However, the lawyer for a plaintiff in an earlier lawsuit involving a previous Thomus Donaghy site location, accused the health authority of violating the settlement agreement the parties entered into last year.
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In that previous case, downtown Vancouver resident Mike Wilson alleged in 2024 that mismanagement of a former overdose prevention site on Seymour Street was damaging the surrounding neighbourhood. It was proposed as a class-action lawsuit seeking damages for affected area residents and businesses.
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The litigation ended last fall with a settlement agreement where the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health made several commitments, including community consultation before opening new overdose prevention sites.
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Reached on Thursday, Wilson said he spoke with several businesses and strata corporations in the area around the Helmcken site and found no evidence anyone was consulted before Coastal Health signed the lease for the planned site.
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“They just made this agreement a few months ago. It’s crazy to me that they would breach it right away,” said Wilson.
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The Seymour Street location closed in 2024 and moved to a site on Howe, which closed in January of this year, leaving Coastal Health looking for a new location.
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Earlier this week, when it was revealed that new location would be on Helmcken, Mayor Ken Sim held a news conference to say he would block the proposed site, claiming such facilities have “disastrous impacts” on neighbourhoods and fail struggling drug users, and that there was no meaningful consultation with the city or other affected groups.
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Daly, though, said Coastal Health met in February and March with senior City of Vancouver staff as well as representatives of the Granville Entertainment District and the Downtown Vancouver business association. She said her agency presented two options for the new site’s location — one on Helmcken and one on Granville. Those consulted had a “loud and clear” preference for Helmcken, Daly said.
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“They don’t get to decide whether we need (a new site) or not. That’s based on the health data. The health data indicated we definitely need one in this neighbourhood, but we consulted with them on the preferred site.”
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Daly said she believes Coastal Health’s legal team will be in touch with Wilson’s lawyer about the question of consultation.
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“We want to know, ‘Is there a problem with this particular location? What would be better?’ We want to hear from the people in that neighbourhood. But I think sometimes people feel that consultation means they can veto it altogether. But we know the rate of death is very high in this neighbourhood. It absolutely requires these services.”
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The Helmcken site falls within the Downtown Vancouver business area. President Jane Talbot was not available Thursday to comment on consultation, but in a statement said of the proposed new overdose prevention site: “Downtown Vancouver cannot continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of this (overdose) crisis.”
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The neighbouring Yaletown Business Improvement Association is monitoring this debate because the site is near its jurisdiction. President Sarah Vallely said the businesses she represents do not support having this type of service anywhere in Yaletown.
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Vallely added that her organization was told two weeks ago about the Helmcken site, but was not asked for its opinion. She has sympathy, she said, for Vancouver Coastal Health, because most business associations are unlikely to be enthusiastic about having such sites nearby.
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“I think they’re going to get the same answer everywhere they go, and that’s why we are being told instead of consulted,” she said.
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The B.C. Civil Liberties Association plans to appear before Alberta’s Court of Appeal on Friday as interveners in a case that challenges that province’s 2024 decision to stop funding a Red Deer overdose prevention site after the city raised objections to it.
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Jerome Igbokwe, a BCCLA lawyer, said it is becoming more “politically expedient” for municipalities to oppose these sites because of community opposition.
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In response to Red Deer’s objections, the Alberta government halted funding for the site. But Igbokwe hopes the NDP in B.C. will, instead, overrule the city.
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“What I’m hoping in B.C.,” he said, “is that the province continues to fight.”
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On Wednesday, Health Minister Josie Osborne said the province will work with municipalities like Vancouver because this type of site “saves lives.” She noted a 2016 ministerial order directs health authorities to provide such services.
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She warned that banning overdose prevention sites could lead to an increase in street disorder, not a decrease. “It would force people out. They would be using in alleys. They would be using in storefronts and doorways.”
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Osborne added that in Toronto, where six overdose prevention sites were closed, there was a 70 per cent increase in ambulance calls for overdoses, putting pressure on the health-care system.
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The Ministry of Health, like Daly, also said local BIAs were consulted earlier this year.
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The first Thomus Donaghy overdose prevention site on Seymour Street was the subject of multiple complaints after it opened in 2021. It moved to Howe Street in April 2024, and Vancouver Coastal Health said last November that complaints about the location had stopped by summer 2024.
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This week, the health authority said the Howe location was closed in January “at the direction of the site owner,” but did not elaborate. Since 2021, the Thomus Donaghy sites have dealt with 480 overdoses.
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Osborne said the Helmcken site will differ from the previous two locations by having an inhalation area away from the street, and there will be an additional “navigator” to help link people with care and other resources.
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Vancouver Coastal Health has said it has a large enough indoor space to reduce outdoor congregation, and will have an outdoor space for drug inhalation in an adjacent parking lot. The lease for the site starts June 1, and Vancouver Coastal Health has said it expects to start operation soon after that.
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