5011 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

National news item:

 

 

 

Overdose alert issued after nearly 50 overdoses reported in Saskatoon over past week

 

Some overdoses resistant to naloxone, says harm reduction organization

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...oxone-1.7472640

 

 

 

 

 

Over 50 in a week.   But Saskatoon has 288,000 residents.

 

Victoria (population ~90,000) has about 6.3 per day.  

 

http://www.bcehs.ca/... 2,032 (-10.6%)

 

 

So if we normalized to the Saskatoon population, we would have about 19 per day, or 133 per week.   But we just consider that normal.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 March 2025 - 04:14 AM.

[lanforod]

Again, not a valid comparison. Combine populations and overdose numbers for the region, then compare to Saskatoon.

[Victoria Watcher]

Again, not a valid comparison. Combine populations and overdose numbers for the region, then compare to Saskatoon.

 

Why?

 

Do you think Saanich residents are coming into CoV in large numbers every day to do drugs, and then overdose here?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 March 2025 - 09:52 AM.

[lanforod]

Maybe not, but the Saskatoon numbers are for a single region more like all the greater Victoria region. So you need to compare apples to apples.
Is there even a valid comparator when talking stats per population anywhere in Canada to the City of Victoria?

[Beacon]

Maybe not, but the Saskatoon numbers are for a single region more like all the greater Victoria region. So you need to compare apples to apples.
Is there even a valid comparator when talking stats per population anywhere in Canada to the City of Victoria?

 

What about the City of Vancouver vs Greater Vancouver?

 

or why stop at the region?  I mean, let's extrapolate the data for the entire island only so we can make issues disappear into averages over an even greater area!  See look we don't have a problem, you just need to include more area then the problems are just fine.  

 

I hate this argument, it's so dismissive and akin to sticking your head in the sand.

[Victoria Watcher]

^ agree.

We have a serious problem right in CoV. A week or two ago I showed you how it is worse than anywhere else in the province and about 40 or 200 times worse than North Saanich.

[lanforod]

If we amalgamated it doesn’t make the problems go away. But it puts them into a more accurate comparison to other regions. Not trying to put heads in sand, that’s what you’re doing to conflate the issue and be misleading with stats. Im just trying to point out that using CoV stats is always going to be misleading due to the fragmentation of our region in 13 munis. If you’ve got a way to normalize it properly, then do so. Not just extrapolating the population.

We want accurate comparison so we can look at regions that are dealing with the same problems better and see if we can emulate that, no? And vice versa. So it’s not helpful if the stats are not a good comparison to start.

Vancouver is different in that it’s a major city. If you’re comparing Vancouver to other major cities, yes also take into account the makeup of the comparisons. I’d consider greater Vancouver vs Toronto for example, not the city of Vancouver

[Victoria Watcher]

I posted the Toronto stats. 3 million population. Adjusted for population was a fraction of Victoria.

[Matt R.]

So when does the fentanyl czar start?

[Victoria Watcher]

B.C. Emergency Health Services confirmed paramedics responded to a call near Broad and Johnson streets in Victoria. Two ambulances were dispatched and paramedics cared for one patient, who was not taken to hospital.

The 600-block of Johnson Street between Government and Broad streets was closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic until just before noon.

The owner of a nearby business said the death occurred outside an empty storefront located at 610 Johnson St.

“I saw them trying to resuscitate somebody, and then they just put up the sheets,” said the man, who did not want his name to be published. “It was very sad.”


https://www.timescol...person-10345568

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 March 2025 - 08:44 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saskatoon sees 400 per cent increase in overdoses this month compared to March 2024

 

https://www.discover...d-to-march-2024

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 March 2025 - 06:41 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Overdose advisory follows two deaths on Victoria streets

 

 

The B.C. Coroners Service is investigating the death of a person found just after 8 a.m. Monday in the 700-block of Johnson Street and a second death around 9:15 a.m. in the 2900-block of Douglas Street.

https://www.timescol...treets-10366881

[Victoria Watcher]

'Unless you’ve walked in those shoes': Langford mom makes plea for involuntary care

Luanna Larusson has seen her 22-year-old drug-addicted daughter overdose, sleep on the streets and walk out of hospital with an IV tube still stuck in her arm.

https://www.timescol...y-care-10378344



When the pandemic hit and hotels were opened to house the homeless, Elihle was placed in the Howard Johnson Hotel on Gorge Road. Her mother stayed with her then 17-year-old daughter to protect her as much as she could. Elihle ended up staying in the hotel for three years.

“I warded off advances from men who came to her room at all hours of the night with drugs,” said Larusson. “There were drug dealers in the building so she didn’t have to leave.”

She was relocated to the tiny home community at Royal Athletic Park, but left. She ended up at newly built supportive housing on Meares Street — a partnership between the province and the city — but staff reported that out of 400 days, she was seen at the building maybe 40 times.

She’s now been given a month to either spend at least two nights out of seven at Meares — where a strict no-visitor policy prevents even her mother from checking on her — or be transferred to a shelter.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 March 2025 - 05:11 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The Meares building ended up costing just shy of $500,000 per unit.

So she was given a brand new small $500,000 apartment but has rejected it.

I’m not sure how you save a person like this.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 March 2025 - 05:31 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The first residents of Vancouver Island’s only long-term substance-use recovery centre for women moved in this month, and they’re calling themselves “the first ladies.”

 

The facility is housed in a former youth detention centre in View Royal that’s already home to a men’s long-term recovery program, New Roads Therapeutic Recovery Community, operated by Our Place Society.

 

Residents of the women’s program, which is separate from the men’s side, can stay for up to two years, taking part in programs to learn how to care for their health, regulate their emotions and integrate back into society. Residents are expected to move in gradually in a phased approach.

 

“It offers people the stability that they need to rebuild their lives and truly break the cycle of addiction,” said Health Minister Josie Osborne during an announcement and tour of the facility on Wednesday.

 

Osborne said one of the first three residents reported feeling safer knowing the program is only open to women, because of trauma she has experienced, while another said she wants to reunite with her children and believes the program will help her do that.

 

To be eligible for the program, women need to have severe addiction issues, mental-health challenges, an experience with homelessness and a connection to the criminal-justice system.

 

The centre has 20 beds for women and two-spirit and gender-diverse people.

 

 

 

[...]

 

 

The capital cost to build the women’s community — $3.7 million — was raised entirely through private donors, said Cheryl Diebel, director of New Roads.

The annual operating cost of just over $3 million is funded by the province, she said.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...ladies-10400875

 

 

 

 

So it's going to cost $150,000 per year per person just to run the programs, feed the residents, and keep the lights on.   Hopefully they measure results.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 March 2025 - 03:32 AM.

[Barrister]

Time for a serious rethink, the economy is about to have a serious shock regardless of how things pan out with the US.

[Stephen James]

If we amalgamated it doesn’t make the problems go away. But it puts them into a more accurate comparison to other regions. Not trying to put heads in sand, that’s what you’re doing to conflate the issue and be misleading with stats. Im just trying to point out that using CoV stats is always going to be misleading due to the fragmentation of our region in 13 munis. If you’ve got a way to normalize it properly, then do so. Not just extrapolating the population.

We want accurate comparison so we can look at regions that are dealing with the same problems better and see if we can emulate that, no? And vice versa. So it’s not helpful if the stats are not a good comparison to start.

Vancouver is different in that it’s a major city. If you’re comparing Vancouver to other major cities, yes also take into account the makeup of the comparisons. I’d consider greater Vancouver vs Toronto for example, not the city of Vancouver

This is confusing.  Why would we not measure CoV in isolation when each municipality is it's own tax entity?  

 

We should absolutely know the burden on City of Victoria taxpayers compared to the other 13/14 municipalities because, as a result of this 15 government system we maintain for 500,000 people, City of Victoria taxpayers have been unjustly, and inappropriately saddled with this problem.  What is any use of aggregating the data?  

 

You manage what you measure.

 

It's been clear for a decade now that managing this issue for the benefit of all Victorians is not a priority, and it's long overdue.

[Mike K.]

Victoria invited its problems, though.

The former mayor started her first term announcing a tent city at Topaz Park.

[Stephen James]

Victoria invited its problems, though.

The former mayor started her first term announcing a tent city at Topaz Park.

Helps did worse than that.  She basically created an arbitrage opportunity offering more services and freebies than any other municipality.  The outcome was obvious to anyone and the great flushing sound for downtown Victoria began.  (It's hard to hear over the sirens.)

 

The cognitive dissonance listening to that... woman... telling us to be better listeners, be kind, when she was the most blinkered, selfish, cruel Mayor I've seen. 

 

Yes, I'm angry. That arrogant, deaf intellectual set our city back 25 years. I've seen it before and it will take a generation to fix downtown Victoria.

[Sparky]

^ This was a perfect example of the Weaponizing Of Kindness and Empathy.