Skeena MLA and Conservative critic for mental health, addictions, and housing supports Claire Rattée said the provincial government’s decision to tighten rules around B.C.’s prescribed safer supply program confirms years of warnings were ignored.
New witnessed-consumption requirements for the program took effect Dec. 30, rolling back the widespread take-home opioid model that was expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rattée said the change is not a policy adjustment, but an admission that the original approach caused harm.
“For years, families, frontline workers, and the Opposition warned that B.C.’s take-home ‘safer supply’ model was causing real harm,” Rattée said. “Today’s rollback confirms what the NDP refused to acknowledge. This is not a refinement, it is an admission of failure.”
Concerns around the program escalated following leaked internal law-enforcement documents indicating a significant proportion of prescribed opioids were being diverted, including through dozens of pharmacies, and trafficked both within and outside the province.
Rattée said the move to witnessed dosing raises questions about why the program was expanded in the first place and why it continues.
“If the government now admits that supervision is necessary to prevent harm, why was this program expanded at all, and why does it continue?” she said.
She argues the delayed response has eroded public trust and weakened confidence in the addiction-care system under the BC New Democratic Party government.
“People struggling with addiction deserve pathways to recovery, not policies that entrench dependency, enable diversion, or fuel organized crime,” Rattée said. “British Columbians expect evidence-based policy and accountability, not failed experiments prolonged out of ideology.”
Rattée said the safer supply program should now be ended entirely, with resources redirected toward treatment, recovery, and long-term supports.
“It’s time to end this policy and redirect resources toward treatment, recovery, and real supports that save lives.”
