With government representatives arriving in town next week for the 2025 BC Natural Resources Forum, Prince George’s Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs is getting ready to pitch them on bringing a psychiatric care facility to the north.
Last year, University Hospital of Northern BC psychiatric ward head Dr. Barb Kane created an online petition calling for the province to establish a psychiatric hospital in Prince George, suggesting the former Prince George Youth Custody Centre as a potential location.
That petition has garnered 3,600 signatures since it was launched on Aug. 14, 2024.
In the wake of that petition, city council passed a motion calling for the intergovernmental affairs committee to launch an advocacy campaign, endorsing the creation of legislative facilitating involuntary care for people in crisis, endorsing Kane’s petition and asking staff to create a communications strategy on advocacy for the issue.
At the committee’s first meeting of 2025 on Tuesday, Jan. 7, members discussed how to move their advocacy on the file forwards.
Though both the NDP and Conservatives supported the introduction of involuntary care during last year’s provincial election campaign, the Legislature will not convene until Feb 18.
In an interview published by The Victoria Times Colonist on Jan. 5, Premier David Eby said the first two involuntary secure-care sites in BC would open in the late spring, one in Surrey and the other in Maple Ridge.
Since Eby and other members of the provincial cabinet will be in PG for the forum taking place from Jan. 14 to 16, city staff were asked to prepare briefing materials in advance so committee members can raise the then or during a planned delegation to Victoria later this year.
Committee members said they want a dedicated psychiatric hospital in Prince George as well as the introduction of involuntary care.
Coun. Brian Skakun said he wants higher levels of government to understand the adding policing costs that mental health challenges are presenting to cities, saying the cost to Prince George is in the neighbourhood of $10 million per year.
He added that involuntary care is a difficult subject to broach.
“As soon as we brought it up with council, you got some of the bloggers going after us,” he said.
“We talked about getting expert consultation, but I think if the media or people what to focus in on some of this, that might be one of the issues that we’re going to get taken to task on. There’s human rights, there’s a whole bunch of other things, there’s rights of the businesses and other individuals to not get their places vandalized and harassed. I don’t know how we balance that.”
He said he thinks it’s going to take years for involuntary care to be implemented because the province will have to develop a set of standards and figure out where to put patients.
Coun. Kyle Sampson said he thinks asking the province to consult subject matter experts will act as a safeguard to make sure that politicians aren’t choosing who is sent to involuntary care.
He said he wants to advocate for mental health services to be in Prince George because of its status as a medical hub for the area and because it could serve as a source of jobs.
“However, I think we should also advocate at the same time … that they have a more robust release system when it’s time to discharge people from this facility, that they have a return-to-home program built-in,” Sampson said.
“What we see with the federal prison (system) is they have a much more robust return to home program, they move (former inmates) around the country to get them home, to get them back to their communities. But with provincial remand centres, it’s ‘okay, here’s your stuff. We’ll drive you down the hill into downtown, then you’re on your own.’”
What that does, Sampson said, is keep people who have been released from the local correctional centre in Prince George even if they don’t originate here. Skakun said he doesn’t want to see Prince George to be seen as a “dumping ground” for people with mental health issues from other communities.
Both Sampson and Skakun said that counselling and other services to help people leaving treatment re-enter society are needed as well.
Sitting in on the meeting as an ex-officio member of the committee was Coun. Trudy Klassen. She said the costs of human suffering and public safety, especially downtown, need to be acknowledged since they are often caused by people who should be in care.
Eric Depenau, the city's manager of administrative services, said he thinks the city should take the tone of being willing to act as a compassionate partner in dealing with mental health issues, especially for communities without the resources to do so themselves, but making it clear Prince George doesn’t want to be taken advantage of when it comes to supporting people after their release.
Coun. Susan Scott and Skakun said there have been rumours that buses of people with issues from other communities have been dropped off in Prince George.
While it’s not clear whether there’s fact behind those rumours, Scott said it needs to be communicated to other communities that they need to be more active than just dropping them off for treatment in Prince George should a facility open.
She also said that BC has seen success in appointing an independent seniors’ advocate and asked how the committee can advocate for the province to create a similar office to tackle mental health issues.
Skakun added that the city will need to collaborate with area First Nations as well to make sure treatment in Prince George is a success.
On top of bringing up the issue with the province, the committee and city staff also intend to engage with the Union of BC Municipalities and the North Central Local Government Association.
The committee’s draft resolution for the NCLGA would have the organization endorse the construction of “a standalone secure psychiatric care facility, to serve the region, in Prince George.”
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