B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau, listens to questions from Union of BC Municipalities members during a convention in Vancouver on Friday, September 20, 2024. Former British Columbia chief coroner Lisa Lapointe is slated to appear alongside BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau for a policy announcement related to the province's illicit-toxic drug crisis. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
VICTORIA – Former British Columbia chief coroner Lisa Lapointe is slated to appear alongside BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau for a policy announcement in Victoria related to the province’s illicit-toxic drug crisis.
Lapointe retired earlier this year after 13 years on the job and in the midst of the toxic drug crisis that has killed more than 15,000 people since a health emergency was declared in 2016.
Before her retirement Lapointe lamented that the emergency never received a “a co-ordinated response commensurate with the size of (the) crisis.”
In her final months on the job, a review panel recommended providing controlled drugs without prescriptions but the idea was almost immediately rejected by the provincial government.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, NDP Leader David Eby will be in Terrace in B.C.’s northwest looking to win back the Skeena riding being vacated by Ellis Ross, who held the seat for BC United, but now will run in the federal election for the Conservatives.
B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad is scheduled to spend the morning making an announcement in Kimberly, in the Kootenays, followed by a meet-and-greet 30 kilometres south in Cranbrook.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2024
