Spike in BC overdose deaths each month after income assistance's "cheque day"

The Downtown Eastside homeless encampment on East Hastings Street, near Main Street, as of July 21, 2022. (submitted)

The latest statistics provided by the BC Coroners Service (BCS) show a sustained trend of escalating deaths related to illicit drug overdoses, with already 1,095 deaths recorded for the first six months of 2022.

In contrast, there were 2,264 deaths in all of 2021, 1,775 in 2020, 984 in 2019, and 1,562 in 2018. The death toll for the first half of 2022 alone is four times what was recorded for all of 2012.

The overdose crisis escalated in the middle of the 2010s, rising from 334 deaths in 2013 to 993 in 2016.

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Across the province, illicit fentanyl continues to be overwhelmingly responsible for these deaths (86%), followed by cocaine (45%) and methamphetamine (42%) as contributors.

With the latest figures, between 2012 and June 2022, there have now been 11,670 deaths across BC related to the overdose crisis. Vancouver’s tally each year typically accounts for between roughly one-quarter and one-third of the overall provincial toll, with 24% of 2022’s deaths to date recorded within the city.

Over the first half of 2022, BCS reported 1,696 deaths were recorded within the jurisdiction of Vancouver Coastal Health, while 2,046 were recorded in the larger jurisdiction of Fraser Health.

Within Coastal Health, 36% of the deaths occurred in the individual’s private residence, and 45% died in a residence not of their own. The pattern is reversed within Fraser Health, where 69% died in their private residence and 13% died in another residence. About one-in-seven deaths in both health authorities occurred outdoors.

BCS also highlighted a sustained pattern of a spike every month in overdose deaths in the days following income assistance payments, also known as “cheque day.”

Income assistance is given out on a Wednesday each month, with BCS tracking a spike in deaths for the five-day period from Wednesday to Sunday. There were an average of 8.2 deaths during the monthly income assistance period over the 12-month period ending in June 2022, as opposed to the average of 5.9 deaths per day for all other days of the month. The difference was particularly wide in April 2022, when an average of 9.2 deaths were recorded daily during the income assistance period compared to the average of 5.3 for all other days of that month.

In their previous discussions with Daily Hive Urbanized over the years, businesses, organizations, and residents in the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown have attested there is a corresponding major spike in public disorder and strewn garbage needles in the days after income assistance is given out each month.

The next “cheque day” is scheduled for August 24.

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