The province announced two new involuntary care facilities on Friday, one in Prince George and the other in Surrey.
Standing in front of the former Prince George Youth Custody Centre, B.C. Premier David Eby said the two renovated facilities will create 132 beds for people with complex mental health disorders.
In Prince George, the former youth corrections centre will be redeveloped into a 72-bed treatment centre developed in collaboration with the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation. The project has a budget of up to $92 million and construction is set to begin in September.
“This facility will particularly focus on people who — because of their mental health issues, their serious addiction challenges and too often a brain injury associated with that addiction — are unable to ask for help and who need the opportunity to stabilize and then transition into the voluntary care system,” Eby said.
“It will also address the suffering in our streets that has gone on unabated for too long.”
A new 60-bed care facility will also be redeveloped at a former drug treatment centre on King George Boulevard in Surrey, with a budget of up to $57 million.
Eby said both centres will be developed in collaboration with their local health authority and the Provincial Health Services Authority.
Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dolleen Logan said the services at the facility in Prince George will be informed through consultation with people with lived experience and northern First Nations. (Hanna Petersen/CBC News)
“After 10 years the tide is finally turning on the opioid crisis,” said Dr. Daniel Vigo, B.C.’s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders.
“The vision is to turn northern B.C. — up to now one of the most underserved areas in the province with respect to this file — into an early model of what fully-integrated mental health and substance use services could be.”
Eby thanked Dr. Barbara Kane, Northern Health’s medical lead for mental health, who started a petition in 2024 calling for a psychiatric hospital to be developed in northern B.C.
She said the need for long-term, secure psychiatric care affects the overall health-care system.
Dr. Barbara Kane says she looks forward to seeing the facility transformed into a healing environment for patients on their recovery journey. (Hanna Petersen/CBC News)
“What happens now is that people who need a place more like this have to stay on our psychiatry ward and our psychiatry ward wasn’t really built for people who were going to stay for months and months and years,” she said.
“We discharge people before we should. I mean, I’ve had to do it and one of the reasons that I started doing this is because I was having to discharge people from the hospital that I was not comfortable discharging.”
Claire Rattee, the B.C. Conservative mental health critic who represents the Skeena riding in northern B.C., said she welcomes the announcement but more needs to be done.
“We’re still not seeing the investments in voluntary treatment that are needed,” she said. “Every single day we are still losing British Columbians to this crisis so there has to be, you know, the investment that’s necessary.”
B.C. Premier David Eby alongside Prince George Mayor Simon Yu and Dr. Daniel Vigo, B.C.’s chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, pose for a photo with other representatives following the announcement at the former Prince George Youth Custody Centre. (Hanna Petersen/CBC News)
Eby said the goal is to have both facilities open and operating within the next 18 to 24 months.
“There are renovations that need to take place here. Hiring needs to take place to staff these facilities, but the contracting is already underway for the improvements that are necessary,” he said.
He said work is underway to assess future bed capacity in other regions of the province.