Pubdate: Thu, 19 Jul 2007
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Cindy Harnett
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

ADVOCATES PLEAD FOR BOOST TO AIDS FUNDS

The B.C. government's $4.1-billion surplus and 2010 Olympic spending 
made it hard for AIDS activists and people living with the disease to 
swallow the health authority's claims of budget constraints at a 
meeting last night.

Mike Conroy, Vancouver Island Health Authority chief operating 
officer, told about 40 people gathered at an AIDS Vancouver Island 
Society annual general meeting in Victoria that there are "competing 
priorities" for its $1.3 billion budget.

"The choices are extensive and the pressures are intensive," Conroy 
said.Email to a friendPrinter friendlyFont:

In a move to redistribute the health authority's $1.5-million budget 
specifically marked for HIV programs to the north and central regions 
where the need is greater, the south Island AIDS programs found 
themselves $450,000 short this year.

"When we looked at our resources, we came to the difficult conclusion 
that we could only enhance HIV/AIDS prevention and support services 
in central and northern Vancouver Island by reallocating existing 
funding from the south," Conroy said.

Funding has been frozen since 1992, said executive director Miki 
Hansen. After protests, VIHA gave AIDS Vancouver Island transitional 
money, but the agency ended its 2007 fiscal year with a $105,000 
budget deficit.

"It makes no sense," Hansen said. "If there's a need for equity 
across the Island, put more dollars in."

Andrew Beckerman, who is HIV-positive, said in a question and answer 
session that he couldn't reconcile the health authority's money 
crunch and the province's surplus and spending.

"The 2010 Olympics benefits almost no one but real estate 
developers," Beckerman said. "Whereas, we have basic needs that need 
to be met in this province to provide food and shelter."

He inquired how "frivolities" trump basic human rights.

"We have people hungry in this province, people living in the street 
and as a person living with AIDS, I wonder why my life isn't valued," 
Beckerman said. He is financially sound, but spoke on behalf of those 
who are not.

Outgoing executive director Miki Hansen stressed that AIDS Vancouver 
Island, the Victoria AIDS Resource and Community Service Society and 
the Vancouver Island Persons with AIDS Society will all be caught in 
the potential 2008 funding crunch if transitional funding isn't 
maintained or core funding increased.

"What we do, people really need," Hansen said.

AIDS Vancouver Island's Victoria needle exchange, serving 2,000 
intravenous drug users, needs more than $250,000 for a new building 
and support services.

And yet the needle exchange is just one of the ways AIDS Vancouver 
Island works to stop HIV infection and helps people living with the 
disease, she said.

"A lot of HIV-positive people never used a syringe, don't do drugs 
and contracted HIV through other ways," she said.

Hansen passed the executive director's torch to Katrina Jensen, amid 
heated budget negotiations between as VIHA and the AIDS agency.

"I'm hopeful VIHA will recognize how needed all these services are 
and restore the funding," Jensen said. "We certainly are not going to 
stop fighting."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman