Perhaps it was fitting that the “Ministry of Air” disappeared from B.C.’s political scene with barely a whiff this week. One moment it was there, another it was erased from the cabinet lineup as if it never existed.

Premier David Eby put to an end the ministry — officially titled the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions — on Monday, eliminating a portfolio that critics say had done little to actually curb the toxic drug crisis or create a coherent addictions treatment system during its seven-year run.

It was Eby’s predecessor, John Horgan, who created the ministry in his first cabinet in July 2017. He trumpeted it as the first in Canada, and a sea change for how the provincial government would approach the complex issue.

“My government will have a minister who gets up every single day focused on solving this problem and saving people’s lives,” Horgan said at the time. “It’s not going to be on the side of someone’s desk.”

The first minister, New Westminster’s Judy Darcy, promised it would help create a “consistent, seamless system of mental health and addiction so that when people ask for help, they get treatment quickly.”

That never happened.

The core of the problem was always simple: The ministry never had any money or power. It couldn’t make addictions treatment policy within the........

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