B.C. Conservatives plan to hire more police, stop illegal drug use in hospitals, shelters

B.C. Conservatives plan to hire more police, stop illegal drug use in hospitals, shelters

Published 3:38 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2026

B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson used the backdrop of a graffitied alleyway in downtown Vancouver Tuesday (Oct. 6) to lay out his party’s plans to address public safety and street disorder.

Doerkson said a B.C. Conservative government would bring “order, security, and compassionate care back to British Columbia’s streets,” adding the time to act is now.

He promised to deploy more police to hard-hit neighbourhoods to deal with street-level crime. That includes hiring and deploying 250 more police officers by expanding the police academy at the Justice Institute of B.C., as well as adding 500 more RCMP and 150 civilian staff over five years to address policing in rural and regional communities.

However, police detachments and unions have spoken multiple times in recent years about the struggle to recruit and hire more police officers.

Earlier this year, Chris Voller, a Pacific and north region board member for the National Police Federation, was at the B.C. legislature calling for the government to fund 300 new rural officers. He said the number of authorized positions in the provincial police force hasn’t changed since 2012 – a pre-NDP government – despite massive population growth.

In November 2022, the B.C. NDP government promised $230 million over three years in police funding for RCMP vacancies in rural detachments and regional units, as well as to hire more officers for specialized units such as major crime, the sexual exploitation of children unit and money laundering.

Doerkson acknowledged there are “obviously challenges there,” but said “it has to be a focus.” He said the police forces B.C. does have are “amazing,” but more help is needed.

He did not say how the B.C. Conservatives plan to address the gap between recruiting and hiring.

Doerkson also promised to hire 50 new Crown prosecutors, working with Ottawa to fund 20 more trial judges and add sheriff and court capacity.

The opioid crisis

Doerkson said the B.C. Conservatives also plan to end the B.C. NDP’s “safe supply” program and expand access to naloxone, while also stopping illegal drug use in hospitals, shelters and publicly funded supportive housing.

Safer supply was introduced in 2021 as a way for individuals to access a range of medications through prescriptions to reduce the risk of drug toxicity death due to accessing the illicit drug supply, according to the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.

Since the toxic drug crisis was declared in B.C. in 2016, there have been more than 18,000 overdose deaths in the province. There have been 776 in the first six months of 2026, according to the latest data from the B.C. Coroners Service.

Doerkson was joined by Vancouver-Yaletown candidate Margareta Dovgal, Skeena incumbent Claire Rattée and Vancouver-Point Grey candidate Alex McMillan.

Rattée, who spoke to her experience of addiction and living on the streets of Vancouver, said public drug use on the streets needs to be stopped.

B.C. Coroners Service data shows 81 per cent of fatal toxic drug overdoses has happened indoors in the first six months of 2026, with 53 per cent of those in private residences and 28 per cent in residences such as social and supportive housing, single-room occupancies, shelters and hotels.

“What’s happening on the streets of Vancouver today, I don’t just see a political issue. I see people, and often I see myself,” Rattée said.

She said “every person we see suffering on our streets has a story that isn’t finished yet, and we cannot give up on that.”

She added keeping someone alive matters, but keeping someone alive is “not enough.”

“Real compassion means believing recovery is possible, even when the person suffering doesn’t believe it themselves,” Rattée said. “It means treatment, recovery, responsibility, connection, purpose and sometimes it means intervention. We can protect our streets and refuse to abandon the people suffering on them. Those ideas are not in conflict.”

– With files from Mark Page

READ MORE: B.C. marks 10-year anniversary of toxic drug crisis, looks back at axed decrim pilot

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