B.C. Conservative MLA shares personal story of family lost to toxic drug crisis, joins calls for safer supply inquiry

The first week of the spring legislative session came to a fiery close Thursday with calls for a public inquiry on B.C.'s safer supply program.

B.C. Conservative House Leader A’aliya Warbus opened question period Thursday on a personal and somber note, addressing the NDP government’s safer supply program, and the impact of the toxic drug crisis generally.

“Empty words by this premier will not bring back my loved ones,” she told her colleagues in the legislature. “My family has already paid an unsurmountable price during this crisis.”

Warbus has lost four relatives to the toxic drug crisis, including her cousin – 13-year-old Chayton Point, who died last fall after ingesting drugs he found in a wallet at a bus stop.

She said she wants to put a face to the staggering number of lives lost.

“The wound is so fresh, and so many families are struggling in this way,” she said Thursday after Question Period.

Warbus was joined by two other B.C. Conservatives – Leader John Rustad and MLA Elenore Sturko – calling for a pubic inquiry into the NDP safer supply program, and the significant diversion of prescribed alternatives recently acknowledged by the government in a leaked Health Ministry document.

“To make sure it should never happens again in this province,” admonished Rustad.

“Will the premier implement a public inquiry so we can get to the bottom of this scandal?” asked Sturko.

The government announced Wednesday it was changing the safer supply program to require the ingestion of prescribed alternatives to be witnessed by a health professional.

On Thursday, it didn’t address calls for an inquiry, taking aim instead at 60-plus pharmacies alleged to have aided the diversion.