A place to be together. To remember.
In April 2016, the Provincial Public Health Officer formally declared a public health emergency in B.C. due to the significant increase in overdose deaths links to unregulated and toxic drugs. Since 2016, over 18,000 people have died from drug poisonings in the province, and overdose deaths have not consistently declined. All communities have been impacted.
April 14, 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the declaration of the emergency. Although deaths have decreased over the last year, there is still a lot of suffering and uncertainty in community. In some communities, the losses have overwhelmed organizational and individual capacity.
As communities continue to navigate the grief and uncertainty that come with such loss, many have created temporary and permanent local Memorials to act as spaces to gather and commemorate the lives of their loved ones. This is often organized by the local Community Action Team or a community group working on the front lines. Moms Stop the Harm has been a leader in creating spaces for families to remember those who have been lost.
On behalf of the Community Action Team network, and a large table of stakeholders who work in partnership with people with lived and living experience, CAI is helping to develop a proposal to establish a permanent Provincial Overdose Memorial in B.C. We are hopeful that this will create a space for us to be together, to remember.
We were particularly inspired by Gord Portman, a person with lived experience of substance use, who worked alongside the municipality of Penticton to create a permanent memorial. In his presentation to our Working Group, Gord shared how the memorial has also acted as a site for early intervention and stigma reduction. In a time when stigma around substance use is prevalent and increasing, memorials dedicated to this type of loss offer an in-between space to be honest about our pain and our suffering, as well as finding resources to help us move forward.