Municipal Governments Abandoned - Forced to Seek Federal Help as Mental Health and Addictions Crisis Deepens

Conservative MLAs say the NDP government has lost control of the healthcare crisis in British Columbia, as local governments from Merritt to Nanaimo are now escalating mental health and addictions issues to Ottawa out of sheer desperation.

IMAGE CREDIT: Neuroscience Institute

“When mayors start writing to federal MPs instead of the Health Minister, it just proves the provincial government’s inability to deal with the crisis,” said Claire Rattée, MLA for Skeena and Critic for Mental Health and Addictions.

“Addictions, poverty, and mental illness are colliding across this province. The system is underfunded, unaffordable, and dangerously inaccessible,” Rattée continued. 

“Experts say mental health should make up 12% of the health budget, BC isn’t even close. And now Merritt’s mayor is appealing to Ottawa because the province won’t act. This is all happening amidst a larger healthcare crisis in BC. We don’t just have gaps, we have total breakdowns.”

In Merritt, local RCMP have already responded to 111 mental health calls this year, nearly one per day, as the Nicola Valley Hospital lacks the staff and infrastructure to respond to psychiatric emergencies.

Elenore Sturko, MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale and Critic for Solicitor General and Public Safety, said the Merritt situation highlights how overwhelmed the justice system has become under the NDP. “Police officers are forced to act as a safety net for our failing mental healthcare system,” said Sturko. 

“At a time when people are feeling less safe, officers are often tied up for hours in hospital waiting rooms with people in distress instead of responding to calls for service or patrolling their communities. This NDP government has left both public safety and mental health care to collapse.” 

In Nanaimo, the city just spent $125,000 of its own emergency funds to keep a daytime drop-in hub for the unhoused and addicted running after provincial support dried up.

“Nanaimo, Merritt, and other municipalities are left to do the job of the province, and now even of the feds,” said Tony Luck, MLA for Fraser-Nicola and Critic for Municipal Affairs and Local Government. “City councillors are fed up, literally saying it’s time to ‘ship tents to the MLA’s front lawn’ to get the province’s attention. That’s how abandoned they feel. This is supposed to be provincial jurisdiction, but municipalities are being forced to carry the cost while the NDP points fingers and passes the buck.”

The BC Conservatives say this abandonment of local governments is a symptom of a much deeper collapse. “This isn’t just about Merritt or Nanaimo,” said Rattée. “This is about a province-wide healthcare crisis that the NDP keeps denying, while communities are screaming for help.”