Campbell not a ‘saviour’ but a much-needed conduit for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

A former police officer, coroner, senator and mayor has been tapped to tackle the complex problems on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell said his appointment as British Columbia’s new point-person to improve quality of life for people living in the city’s Downtown Eastside doesn’t mean he’s a “czar” or saviour of the beleaguered neighbourhood.

Campbell said the saviours are those who work every day in the community, which is an epicentre for the deadly toxic drug crisis, poverty, homelessness and crime.

But Campbell said he hopes to work with the community to find a process through which they can move forward and create change in a more co-ordinated manner with support from all three levels of government, municipal, provincial and federal.

“There’s so much that’s gone on down there, and is going on, that’s good. But it doesn’t seem to be co-ordinated at a level, at an upper level,” he said Monday.

“I will be spending probably the next two months talking to them and making sure that we’re all working together and that we’re all going in the same direction,” he said of community groups and residents in the neighbourhood.

The former senator, RCMP officer and chief coroner said connecting Downtown Eastside residents with the type of housing they need will be key to the effort.

“I believe that housing is the hub of the wheel and that the spokes are women at risk, Indigenous people, people who are mentally ill, people who are addicted, the working poor — the people who are on the Downtown Eastside who desperately need housing,” Campbell told a news conference.

Housing Minister Christine Boyle said Campbell’s past roles mean he is uniquely positioned to be “the highly effective bridge we need” to co-ordinate work that’s happening in the neighbourhood with the three levels of government.

“There are no quick fixes for the ongoing challenges in the Downtown Eastside, but working alongside the community is how we will find a way forward,” she said.

Boyle said Campbell’s work will touch on housing, health care, public spaces and infrastructure and economic development in the neighbourhood.

Campbell was flanked by representatives of community groups who welcomed his appointment, saying it gave them a much-needed sense of hope.

Sarah Blyth with the Overdose Prevention Society said Campbell’s appointment offers a conduit to officials in Victoria and Ottawa.

“I want to have the people on the front lines that I’m working with, who are in the terrible positions that I see very day, I want them to be able to have a voice in (Premier David Eby’s) office too,” she said, adding, “they know what they need.”

Blyth said she has felt overwhelmed, depressed and run down by the overlapping crises facing the neighbourhood and its residents.

“So, this gives me some hope and we really welcome (Campbell) to come down to the community,” she said.

Steven Johnston with the Community Impact Real Estate Society said there’s a misperception that groups serving the Downtown Eastside work in silos.

“That’s absolutely not true. We meet now on a weekly basis,” he said.

Johnston said the meetings involve some 30 to 40 stakeholders, including city and provincial representatives, talking about what’s working and hearing from residents and community groups who have the solutions the neighbourhood needs.

But he said they’ve hit a roadblock in communicating the work and support that’s needed to higher levels of government, and especially to Ottawa.

“What’s really exciting about this particular announcement is now we have a direct liaison to all three levels of government,” Johnston said of Campbell’s appointment.

“That’s what’s going to be required to make change in this neighbourhood.”

Campbell, whose contract will run until March next year, said working together with local groups will help move the “unique and incredibly resourceful” neighbourhood forward in a “focused, compassionate and effective way.”

Campbell is to be paid $92,000 for the six-month position, plus up to $10,000 in expenses. “That’s the ceiling,” he told the news conference.

“I wouldn’t have taken this position if I wasn’t sure that with the help of (community groups) and with all three levels of government that we can make changes here for the Downtown Eastside, for the citizens of Vancouver, and hopefully, for the other cities in the province who find themselves in much the same position.”

Campbell served as Vancouver’s mayor between 2002 and 2005, then in the Senate until 2023.

He was mayor when Insite, the first legal supervised safe injection site, opened in the Downtown Eastside in 2003.

Campbell initially supported drug decriminalization but has since criticized its effects on public safety.

He replaces Michael Bryant, whose contract was cancelled in May 2025 after questions arose over the cost and lack of transparency about his appointment.

Lea Caragata, director and associate professor at the University of B.C.’s school of social work, said Bryant’s appointment seemed to accomplish little.

Campbell has the right background for the role as a former RCMP officer, chief coroner and “supporter of harm reduction,” she said in an email.

“So provisionally, I think this could be a great appointment but subject of course to what the role really is, about which I have seen little detail,” she said, noting another key question is whether Campbell will have the resources to fulfil his mandate.

“My sad bet is that within six months very little will change,” she added. “Make no mistake, I wish him well.”

Conservative MLA Claire Rattée, meanwhile, questioned Campbell’s appointment.

“British Columbians don’t need more czars or consultants,” she said in a statement.

She said Eby’s New Democrat government must abandon what she called the “failed social experiment” of drug decriminalization and end what she called “taxpayer-funded drug consumption sites.”

This report by Brenna Owen and Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press, was first published Sept. 29, 2025.