Two weeks before voters weigh in on the Vancouver drug plebiscite, Mayor Ken Sim had a blunt message for the provincial government: “This is really on the province.”

Sim spoke Thursday at the third annual PROSPER Symposium at the Westin Bayshore, in a sit-down with PROSPER co-founder Dr. Kevin Sabet. The nonpartisan group released a policy paper the same day on the two questions Vancouver voters will see on October 17.

The first asks about a bylaw against using hard drugs in public spaces. The second asks the province for voluntary and involuntary care beds in the city.

Sim said the province agreed to involuntary care and committed to 400 beds two years ago. “Premier Eby, in this case, has yet to provide a single bed in Vancouver for Vancouver residents, and that’s just not right,” he said.

On the bylaw, Sim said officers today would have to arrest someone and send a report to the Crown to stop public drug use. The new bylaw would let police issue a ticket and confiscate the drugs instead. “We are not going after people for possession,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do is reset social expectations around that issue and reduce the street disorder that comes with it.”

On involuntary care, Sim argued it is already happening, just badly. Patients judged a danger to themselves or others can end up “strapped down to a gurney in a hallway for 48 hours,” he said. “They’re not getting the care they need, and then they’re getting released. I don’t think that’s humane.”

Critics have called the drug plebiscite a half-million-dollar get-out-the-vote effort for a mayor seeking a second term. Sim said it costs about $400,000 to $500,000. He added that the city spends roughly $100 million a year beyond what a city its size should because of provincial policy.

His closing pitch was aimed squarely at Victoria. “They are the key to this. They have to do this, or tell us why they’re not. Stop stringing us around.”

Sim also defended his reversal on decriminalization. The city backed B.C.’s pilot at first, he said, then saw it “failing miserably” and was among the first to say so. The province let the federal exemption lapse in January.

Sabet opened the day with the line he has used for years: meet people where they are, but don’t leave them there. “I think too often we’ve stopped at the first part,” he said.

The PROSPER paper cites the B.C. coroner’s review of more than 6,000 overdose deaths. It found 75 percent of those who died never sought treatment, and 87 percent had a health care visit in their last year.

A panel of addiction physicians pushed the same theme. Dr. Jenny Melamed, who runs a methadone clinic, said she prefers “overdose reversal site” to “overdose prevention site.” The sites, she said, still let people overdose.

Psychiatrist Dr. Pouya Azar said he can detox any fentanyl patient in 24 hours. The problem is sending them straight back to the Downtown Eastside. “Now imagine discharging that person right into a casino and saying, ‘Good luck,'” he said.

Azar also described 12-year-olds using diverted hydromorphone from the safe supply program, “not knowing what it was.”

Vancouver has been here before. The city’s injection sites have long been a flashpoint in the research debate, and Sim credited residents with stopping a planned third site at 900 Helmcken.

Now he wants 200,000 voters to send the same signal. “Can you imagine what happens,” he asked, “when a couple of hundred thousand voters vote on this issue and sends Victoria a big, loud message?”

Watch the full symposium here.