British Columbia鈥檚 new health minister says she鈥檚 aiming for more treatment beds and fewer deaths in a revamped approach to the province鈥檚 drug overdose crisis.

It comes after David Eby鈥檚 newly elected government eliminated the stand-alone Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, which advocates say had no 鈥渢eeth.鈥�

The former ministry was created in 2017 to provide co-ordinated responses to the toxic drug crisis, which has killed more than 15,000 people in the past eight years, but it has now been absorbed into the Health Ministry.

鈥淐ertainly, I really do think the time is right to fold the ministry back into the Ministry of Health,鈥� said Josie Osborne, who was appointed health minister last week, replacing former minister Adrian Dix.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e in a much better position to expedite action and decision making,鈥� Osborne said in an interview. 鈥淣ow is the time to bring that together. The premier鈥檚 been very clear he expects an all-of-government approach to this.鈥�

The B.C. Coroners Service says 1,749 people have died of toxic drug overdoses so far this year. Last year the service reported 2,551 overdose deaths, the most ever recorded in a single year in the province.

鈥淲e are going to do everything possible that we can to reduce the number of deaths and the impacts on people and families,鈥� Osborne said. 鈥淭his is one of the toughest challenges our government, our society, that B.C. faces and one of our government鈥檚 top priorities. The key here is helping people and doing everything we can from all different approaches to reduce the number of deaths and to help people recover and be well.鈥�

B.C. drug policy advocates who are calling on the government to support more safe supply and drug decriminalization policy initiatives say they will watch for signs that the changes, and Osborne鈥檚 appointment, result in shifts in direction and approaches.

鈥淚t鈥檚 good because the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions wasn鈥檛 ever really set up to succeed,鈥� said DJ Larkin, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and an adjunct professor at the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University.

鈥淚t didn鈥檛 have the budget or the authority to do what needed to happen and it set expectations they couldn鈥檛 meet,鈥� Larkin said. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 have the teeth. That sets up people for disappointment because they gather the data. They get the expert input. They get the ideas but they didn鈥檛 have the teeth to make it happen.鈥�

Leslie McBain, co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm, a harm-reduction advocacy group, said she鈥檚 looking forward to the ministry change because 鈥渨e have not got very far in terms of the toxic drug crisis.鈥�

She said she believed the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions was 鈥渁 little bit hooped,鈥� because it fell under the health ministry but had little power.

鈥淚鈥檓 optimistic now, of course,鈥� said McBain. 鈥淚 think change is better than being stuck in a place where there hasn鈥檛 been great movement. These seven or eight years we鈥檝e been waiting for things to improve and they have not. So, with a change, there鈥檚 hope.鈥�

But Larkin and McBain, whose son Jordan died of an overdose more than a decade ago, say they will continue to push Osborne and the NDP government to support efforts to back decriminalization and safe supply efforts.

The government flatly rejected calls from the province鈥檚 chief coroner Lisa Lapointe earlier this year to provide non-prescription access to controlled drugs.

It also rolled back a decriminalization pilot project after political and public outcry over open drug use.

鈥淒ecriminalization has been basically gutted by the premier,鈥� McBain said. 鈥淚t needs to be strengthened rather than gutted for people to be able to use drugs safely.鈥�

Larkin said advocates intend to push Osborne and the government to continue to initiate policy reform towards more decriminalization of drugs.

鈥淭here are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people every year who use unregulated drugs. That is the source of this problem. If we want to save heath care dollars, policing dollars and reinvest in communities we need to deal with the unregulated drug supply, and that means changing the law,鈥� Larkin said.

Osborne acknowledged the issues of decriminalization, safe supply and involuntary care, but said as a new minister she is looking to address the overdose crisis by reaching out to agencies, communities and people.

鈥淩ight now what鈥檚 ahead of me is learning about and listening to people, communities and all the agencies and organizations to understand the real on-the-ground impacts of different approaches to this,鈥� she said.