B.C. back down from charging welfare recipients methadone fee in face of lawsuit
VANCOUVER — Faced with a potential class-action lawsuit, the British Columbia government has ended its practice of deducting money from the welfare cheques of recovering addicts receiving treatment from private methadone-dispensing clinics.
Legal documents received by the plaintiff’s lawyer from the provincial government indicate the Ministry of Social Development has changed its policy and, beginning next week, will pay any additional clinic fees for affected clients on income or disability assistance.
It’s the latest development in a legal challenge launched last November aimed at stopping the government from allowing private clinics to take $18.34 from clients’ social-assistance cheques in exchange for methadone treatment, as well as compensating those already affected by the policy.
“The government’s change of heart is (its) way of acceding to the inevitable,” said Jason Gratl, lawyer for the proposed representative plaintiff.