
Single coordinator needed to end humanitarian crisis in DTES
Op-ed originally published in The Vancouver Sun on March 19, 2021. Photograph by: Jesse Winter / Reuters
The humanitarian crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside has been decades in the making. Rooted in Canada’s traumatic colonial legacy, the ongoing effects of poverty and racism combined with the proliferation of drugs and a patchwork of ineffective government policies have abandoned thousands of Downtown Eastside residents and created a social and economic crisis for the City of Vancouver.
A long-term, collaborative, and integrated strategy led by a single oversight body is needed now if we are to put an end to this crisis.
The Downtown Eastside represents two per cent of the geographical area of Vancouver, and with 20,000 people is home to less than three per cent of the city’s population. But 21 per cent of all service calls to the Vancouver Police Department and over 20 per cent of the mental health service calls originate from the neighbourhood.
The life expectancy in the Downtown Eastside is about 65 years, compared to 84.5 years for the general population. Since 2016, the opioid menace has killed roughly 1,600 people in the city, with many of them in the Downtown Eastside. These numbers are not just statistics — each one of these people is a parent, brother, sister, or child. They are members of our families and communities.
These losses represent a history of collective failure through policy and neglect.
To accommodate Expo 86, over 1,000 residents of single-room occupancy hotels were evicted from their homes to accommodate tourists. They were left on their own, scrambling to find shelter.
The closure of Riverview Hospital in 1987 displaced hundreds of people suffering from mental illness and addiction, and the B.C. Liberal government extensively cut service for the most vulnerable and marginalized.
The real estate boom has made housing unaffordable while governments have consistently failed to invest sufficiently in social housing options. Rampant illicit drug supply has fuelled the substance use and increased criminality in the city.
Today, the City of Vancouver is severely challenged by the social and economic impacts of this crisis.
Heavy call loads on police, fire, health, housing, and mental health services providers are becoming major stressors on personnel and resources.
Over $1 million per day is being spent in the Downtown Eastside by various agencies. Thanks to the countless community organizations such as Atria Women’s Resource Society, Wish Drop-in Centre Society, Union Gospel Mission, Downtown East Side Neighbourhood House Society, Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Covenant House, and others, many receive desperately needed nutritious meals and safe housing and support services.
The joint Vancouver Coastal Health and Vancouver police mental health outreach Car 87/88 program is also a lifesaver for many. While much is being done, the effort is largely a patchwork of public and not-for-profit attempts to provide short-term, reactive relief.
This crisis will not be resolved through such an approach. We need a collaborative, long-term solution now.
Two reports have recommended such a strategy. The 2009 Vancouver police report “Project Lockstep: A United Effort to Save Lives in the Downtown Eastside” called for a director to be established who would coordinate and collaborate with all agencies working in the neighbourhood.
In 2014, the Mayor’s Task Force on Mental Health and Addiction concluded that a collective impact initiative be developed for all the service providers.
Again in 2017, the newly appointed B.C. minister of mental health and addictions, Judy Darcy, was encouraged to increase collaboration and administrative oversight.
To date there has been little action. Why?
Poverty, mental health needs, addiction and homelessness are not going away. They need a long-term integrated service delivery model with a single oversight body.
The provincial government and Vancouver city council should create such an oversight body to lead multi-sectoral and multi-agency partnerships. Comprehensive wrap-around services must be more effective through efficient investment of taxpayers’ money and deliver more compassionate care.
Let us be pragmatic and bridge our ideological, political, gender, class, and racial divides to create long-term innovative pathways for ending this humanitarian crisis and finding sustainable solutions for lasting transformation.

We Should Support Immigrant Women Entrepreneurs
Op-ed originally published in The Vancouver Sun on September 11, 2014
Kas Guha came to Canada 10 years ago from an area in India known for silk manufacturing. Over the years, she has worked in many retail and non-profit jobs but she always dreamed of connecting Canadians with the beautiful weaving by artisans in her home region. She turned her dream into a reality in 2013 and launched Ethnik Yarn, bringing hand-woven textiles, apparel, and accessories made by artisans in several Indian villages to Canada.
Kas’s story has me wondering how many other immigrant women have similar dreams that have not yet been realized. There are many efforts under way in Canada to ensure support for women in business, as well as programs to support immigrant entrepreneurs, but is enough being done for female immigrant entrepreneurs specifically?
The importance of women in business is well documented. It has been found that organizations with more women in top management positions achieve 35-per-cent higher return on equity than their peers. Women also tend to be better team-builders, better at assessing the resources needed to accomplish certain goals, better at combining intuitive and logical thinking, and better at managing money. Women also tend to focus more on the greater good, engaging with communities and participating more actively in social responsibility projects. Ethnik Yarn, for example, sponsors campaigns to raise awareness about cervical cancer in Bengal, India.
Yet the barriers to women in business persist. Women have a more difficult time securing financing for their businesses, which may be due to the bias of investors or other factors such as women’s tendency to take fewer risks than men. Many women also need to balance work with a greater share of responsibilities at home than their male counterparts, and as a result many women tend to get involved in business at a later stage in life, which can also be seen as a strike against them. Today, women still only represent 35 per cent of all self-employed people in Canada.
Comparatively, Canada is doing well in terms of the number of over-all women in business; Statistics Canada reports almost half of all small- and medium-sized businesses are entirely or partly owned by women, and contribute to the creation of almost 10,000 jobs every year. There are a number of provincial programs to support women in business such as The Women’s Enterprise Initiative, which has offices in four provinces.
In B.C., the provincial government has created the Women’s Economic Council to advise women in business and expand opportunities for women in key business sectors in the province. However, there is no national strategy specifically aimed at supporting women in business.
Both federally and provincially, we recognize the importance of engaging with diaspora populations to share knowledge and grow the economy. The government of Canada offers support services for all Canadians hoping to start a new business, and last year announced a Start-Up Visa program to attract immigrant entrepreneurs to the country. Similarly, the B.C. Provincial Nominee Program provides information and support for newcomers hoping to start or bring their business to the province.
But we have not explored sufficiently the ways in which we might leverage the knowledge and networks of female immigrants interested in starting businesses in Canada. Many immigrant women have unique skills, including market intelligence, that they have learned from their home countries, and innovative ideas that could contribute to their home communities as well as to Canada. But immigrant women also face unique challenges when coming to our country: Sexism and racism intersect in ways that can hold them back from realizing their full potential.
By overlooking the role of female immigrant entrepreneurs in Canada, and the ways in which we might support them, we are potentially missing out on important opportunities to bolster international trade and create jobs both here and abroad. I applaud the various efforts, particularly at the provincial level, to support women in business and to encourage immigrant entrepreneurship, but I would also welcome a deeper look at policy and program initiatives that focus on female immigrant entrepreneurs. How can we support the Kas Guhas of our country to ensure we are not missing out on a potentially more creative and diverse society and economy?