These statements are taken directly from the B.C. Conservative Party platform document, without comment. They don’t address crime, drugs or treatment until page 36 of the 71 page document.
Lorne Doerkson’s Plan for a Stronger BC | 2026
STRONG LEADERSHIP for SERIOUS TIMES
Make treatment and recovery accessible
People living with severe mental illness or addiction need care and a clear path to recovery. We will strengthen prevention, crisis response, treatment, and help them rebuild.
• Improve access to mental health care. We will expand timely access to psychiatric services, community mental health care, crisis response and appropriate residential treatment, with stronger early interventions.
• Conduct an independent review of the Mental Health Act to address a broad range of issues including brain injuries, schizophrenia and dementia.
• Implement a recovery-oriented system of care. We will restore an evidence-based approach to addiction focused on prevention, treatment, and recovery.
• We will expand detoxification, clinical treatment, recovery housing and aftercare across British Columbia, including regional capacity for rural and northern communities. Treatment will connect vulnerable people with housing, employment, primary care and family support.
• We will strengthen upstream intervention for vulnerable children and youth, particularly those already receiving provincial services or at risk of falling through gaps between systems. We will improve coordination between child and family services, anti-drug education in schools, mental
health and addiction services, education and housing so young people do not lose critical supports as they transition into adulthood.
• Help, not waiting lists. People who ask for help should not simply be put on another waiting list. We will work toward treatment on demand, with immediate access to detox, evidence-based medications, residential treatment and outpatient programs as required.
• Mandatory treatment. For people whose severe addiction, mental health challenges, or acquired brain injury leaves them incapable of caring for themselves or at immediate risk of serious harm, we will provide mandatory care. It is not safe or respectful to leave these individuals to suffer on the
streets. They should be off the street and in care until they no longer pose a threat to themselves or others.
Everyone should feel safe going to work, riding transit, visiting a park or opening a business. Parents should feel confident about the neighbourhoods where their children grow up. Frontline workers should be protected as they care for others. And when disaster threatens, communities should be ready for it before it arrives.
After nine years of the NDP, the feeling of public safety has been eroded. Repeat and violent offenders go through a revolving door. Streets, transit, hospitals, shelters and supportive housing have become unsafe for the people who use them and the people who work there. Drug-friendly facilities have been forced on communities that did not want them. Businesses and families are being targeted by street crime, retail theft, and extortion.
The Conservative Party of BC will bring safety back to BC’s streets. We will enforce mandatory treatment for people who have lost control of their lives and are in the grip of severe addiction and mental illness for whom treatment is compassion. We will move funding from free drugs to drug prevention, treatment and recovery.
A SAFER BC:
We will get crime and chaos off the streets so normal, law-abiding BritishColumbians can feel safe and secure again. The time for indulgence is over.
We will fund and empower police, prosecutors and courts so they have the tools to do their jobs and justice moves faster. We will restore confidence in our communities.
Give public safety the resources it needs We will increase enforcement by 1,000 new law enforcement officers, including police, prosecutors, sheriffs, judges, and support staff and increase peace officer authorities to enforce the law strictly from street crime to organized gangs and money laundering.
We will keep repeat and violent offenders off the streets longer and monitor them more closely when released. Our anti-extortion task force will defend businesses and families from extortion.
We will focus specialized enforcement on organized crime, illegal guns, drug trafficking and the networks behind organized theft. We will work with the federal government to remove non-citizen criminals from Canada.
We will:
• Stop the revolving door for repeat and violent offenders: strengthen bail and warrant enforcement, establish a dedicated repeat-offender court stream and expand electronic monitoring.
• Add police capacity: 250 more police recruits, 500 more RCMP, 30 sheriffs, and 150 civilian staff over five years.
• Implement an Anti-Extortion Action Plan with specialized investigators and clear reporting and protection pathways for threatened businesses and families.
• End the existing “safe supply” approach and redirect the focus to prevention, treatment and recovery; enforce safety and drug rules in hospitals, shelters and supportive housing, and expand the use of drug courts.
• Speed up justice: hire 50 Crown prosecutors, pursue 20 additional trial judges and deploy to high-need target communities, and launch the Seven-Day Trial Pilot to speed up straightforward criminal cases.
• Target illegal guns, not lawful hunters, farmers and gun owners.
• Protect communities from wildfire: invest $400 million in aircraft expansion and $100 million in wildfire innovation, alongside Community Protection Forestry, controlled burns and stronger mutual aid.
Make public spaces safe for everyone
Streets, transit, hospitals, shelters and supportive housing must be safe for the people who use them and the people who work there.
• We will stop forcing drug-friendly facilities on communities.
• We will end the public disorder on our streets and in our public spaces.
• Conduct a review and reform of OPSes and injection/inhalation sites in consultation with local communities, with the goal of fewer and better-situ-
ated options that effectively provide a path to treatment and recovery.
• Expand security funding for vulnerable religious communities.
Respond to crisis with care and protection. Compassion requires action when people are in serious distress. We will strengthen coordinated responses involving police and mental health professionals, alongside clinical teams.
• We will move from “safe supply” to care and recovery, connecting people to treatment and support, with public safety and care working together on the response.
• Recovery must be supported beyond the initial intervention. People leaving treatment or corrections will have appropriate plans for care, housing and follow-up.
Make treatment and recovery accessible · $95 million
• Improve access to mental health care · A recovery-oriented system of care: detox, clinical treatment, recovery housing and aftercare · Upstream intervention for vulnerable children and youth · Help, not waiting lists, and mandatory care for those who cannot protect themselves
Give public safety the resources it needs · $178 million
• Stop the revolving door for repeat and violent offenders · Add police capacity: 250 police recruits, 500 RCMP, 30 sheriffs and 150 civilian staff over five years · Anti-Extortion Action Plan · Speed up justice: 50 Crown prosecutors, a push for 20 more trial judges and a Seven-Day Trial Pilot
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