Quesnel City Council is joining the city of Prince George in saying they want their piece of the pie in any settlement or court victory in connection with the opioid crisis.
Mayor Bob Simpson says the money would come out of a class action suit filed by the BC Government against several companies…
“And I think Prince George is being quite proactive in saying the costs of the opioid crisis have been borne by municipalities throughout the province, and if there is a settlement to this class action lawsuit municipalities should be considered as potential recipients of some of that money.”
Simpson says Quesnel has even incurred some of those extra costs…
“And we can certainly attest to the extra costs that we’ve had to incur as we’ve had to deal with some of these things, not the least of which is ramping up our own bylaw and RCMP which is a big part of our budget this year.”
Quesnel City Council will send a letter of support for Prince George to the provincial government.
Several other provinces have joined BC in its lawsuit against these drug companies, including the maker of Oxycontin, accusing them of making false marketing claims that opioids as less addictive than other pain drugs.
The settlements in the US have been quite lucrative, 260 million for two counties in Ohio and 572 million dollars in Oklahoma.