Pubdate: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Copyright: 2000, Canoe Limited Partnership. Contact: #250, 4990-92 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T6B 3A1 Canada Fax: (780) 468-0139 Website: http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonSun/ Forum: http://www.canoe.ca/Chat/home.html Author: Rachel Evans VANCOUVER MAYOR FEARS INFLUX OF ALTA ADDICTS Vancouver's mayor fears Premier Ralph Klein will use his coastal city as a dumping ground for Alberta junkies if a safe "needle" park is created for British Columbia addicts. "They have a lot of one-way Greyhound bus tickets that the premier of Alberta would like to hand out to a lot of people in Calgary and Edmonton and they'd all be here in hordes and I think that's not good for anybody," said Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen. The premier's spokesman, Gordon Turtle, last night described the comments as "outrageous," "ludicrous" and "pathetic." It was, Turtle said, a bizarre way for the Vancouver mayor to dodge a serious proposal for his drug-troubled burg. "That seems to be a pretty pathetic excuse not to institute a program to assist people with drug-abuse problems." Owen made the comment yesterday while unveiling a $30-million plan with 31 recommendations to address the B.C. city's junkie population, which he estimates at 12,000. But Turtle said the mayor went overboard in his reasoning for rejecting one possible part of that plan, a safe park for drug injectors. The safe-park concept is in operation in Geneva, Switzerland. "He's being flippant about a very serious matter. I would say these comments are ludicrous and inappropriate and they certainly have no basis in reality." Klein, he predicted, will ignore the insult. "I think he'll just laugh it off. It's obviously not something he should take seriously." But, in fact, said New Democrat Brian Mason, Albertans should take the comment very seriously. "I would remind people that one of the ways that the provincial government dealt with people on social assistance in Alberta in the early '90s, when they cut the financing for social programs, is they gave people one-way bus tickets to B.C." The Vancouver mayor, Mason said, should get Klein's promise that Alberta won't "off-load" junkies on to his programs. "Given the record of the government of Alberta, I would be concerned as well. I would encourage the mayor of Vancouver to get some assurances from the province of Alberta that this won't happen again." Alberta's Associate Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky called Owen's remarks "disrespectful." "I think the mayor's comments are unfortunately maligning many individuals who come from different parts of Canada to live in that province," he said. "It sounds to me like he's trying to deflect the blame on to other provinces and in this case his blame on Alberta is very unattributable and very disrespectful." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake