Perhaps it was fitting that the “Air Ministry” disappeared from BC’s political scene with barely a whimper this week. One moment it was there, the next it was erased from the cabinet as if it had never existed.

Prime Minister David Eby ended the ministry — officially titled the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions — on Monday, eliminating a portfolio that critics say had done little to actually curb the toxic drug crisis or create a coherent addiction treatment system during its seven-year run.

It was Eby’s predecessor, John Horgan, who created the ministry in his first cabinet in July 2017. He trumpeted it as a first in Canada, and a marked change in how the provincial government would tackle the complex issue.

“My government will have a minister who gets up every day focused on solving this problem and saving people’s lives,” Horgan said at the time. “It’s not going to be on the side of anyone’s desk.”

The first minister, New Westminster’s Judy Darcy, promised it would help create a “consistent, seamless mental health and addictions system so that when people ask for help, they get treatment quickly.”

It never happened.

The crux of the problem was always simple: the ministry never had any money or power. It could not make a policy on the treatment of substance abuse in health care without the approval of the then health minister Adrian Dix. And it couldn’t create actual treatment beds, without money from Dix ​​either.

The result was a confusing, bureaucratic mess, with two ministers (not always aligned) plus a prime minister (also not always aligned) trying to navigate complex issues such as opioid agonist therapy prescribing policy, hospital treatment beds and the police response to a developing decriminalization pilot .

It all became mostly a PR exercise, with a minister nominally in charge of one of the most complex, life-changing issues affecting society today, without any real tools or funding to tackle it in any meaningful way.

Instead, the ministry would issue cut-and-paste statements every month or so as the coroner issued the latest toxic drug deaths, expressing regret and remorse over the loss of life.

In 2021, I called it the “Air Ministry” after then-minister Sheila Malcolmson revealed to the legislature that the ministry’s entire $13 million budget went to salaries and expenses for 83 full-time employees — with nothing actually going to mental health or substance abuse. , and no control over the $2.7 billion spent annually within the health budget in that area.

The nickname stuck.

But the New Democrats stuck to the argument that it was better to at least have a point person for the issue on paper, than to be demoted within the Ministry of Health.

Eby also played into the idea during his first 22 months as Prime Minister, putting Jennifer Whiteside in the role. But after getting an eyeful in the election from voters mad about visible drug use downtown, decriminalization, continued overdose deaths and overall street problems — he changed course.

Gone is the argument that a devoted minister adds weight to the act. Now the NDP argues the opposite.

“It’s about the challenge and the critical importance of delivering infrastructure related to mental health and addiction treatment centers, detox centers, the kind of infrastructure we need across the province through a department that was separate from the Ministry of Health,” Eby said.

“So to ensure we can deliver on the toxic drug crisis, put it back to the Ministry of Health.”

Eby downgraded the mental health and addictions archive two steps to a parliamentary secretary post, which is not even a member of the government. The responsibility now lies, clearly, with the new Health Secretary Josie Osborne.

“It’s time now to integrate and work together, bring this together and be able to take that more flexible approach,” Osborne said.

Better late than never. But more than 14,000 people have died from toxic drugs since the ministry was created.

Asked by reporters after his cabinet was sworn in if the move was made because of public dissatisfaction with his government’s controversial drug policies over the years, including decriminalization and safe delivery, Eby denied any connection.

“No, not at all,” he said.

But he came to admit it later via another question.

“There’s no question … British Columbians sent us back to Victoria to do this work by a narrow majority,” Eby said.

“I think one of the issues, absolutely, was the toxic drug crisis and the impact on our streets, and I hope they see with this cabinet that we’re taking that very seriously.

“We will continue to redouble our work to keep people safe from overdose deaths, and also to keep communities safe and make sure people feel comfortable in their downtowns.”

The Ministry of Aviation dissolved into nothing. If only it had happened sooner.

Rob Shaw has spent more than 16 years covering BC politics, now reporting for CHEK News and writing for Glacier Media. He is the co-author of the national best-selling book A matter of trusthost of the weekly podcast Political capitaland a regular guest on CBC Radio.

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