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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 198

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 16, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 2:55:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are pretty fed up with this fight against evidence-based programs that actually are saving lives. We cannot allow the Conservatives to take us back to the failed ideology of the past. Even Harper's adviser, Ben Perrin, thinks they are speaking nonsense. So just stop it and save lives.
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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)
  • May/16/23 2:55:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, no common sense. The evidence is seen in the tragic faces of addicts who lie overdosed on the pavement in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver where, after this Prime Minister spent $100 million handing out free drugs to addicts, he has led to a 300% increase in overdoses. Will he stop giving dollars for drugs and instead follow my common-sense plan to put the resources into treatment and recovery to bring our loved ones home drug free?
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Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 2:56:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people are dying— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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The Speaker
  • May/16/23 2:57:00 p.m.
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Order. One person at a time in this chamber, please. The hon. minister.
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Hon. Carolyn Bennett
  • May/16/23 2:57:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 46,000 overdoses have been reversed in safe consumption sites. The member says that he will stop that. I want him to speak to the parents of the people who would have been lost if there were no safe consumption sites and no safe supply. This is ridiculous.
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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)
  • May/16/23 2:57:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people are dying because the minister and the Prime Minister are flooding the streets with dangerous drugs and killing these people. Since they brought in this policy, there has been a 300% increase in drug overdose deaths, and 30,000 people have lost their lives. Investigative journalists have shown that the drugs that she is funding with Canadian tax dollars are flooding the streets and being sold for a dollar— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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The Speaker
  • May/16/23 2:58:30 p.m.
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Order. I am hearing yelling on both sides. The hon. Leader of the Opposition can start from the top, please, so we can hear the whole question. I do not want to hear any screaming or shouting in the background, and then we can hear an answer as well. The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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Hon. Pierre Poilievre
  • May/16/23 2:58:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people are dying because the policies of the Prime Minister are killing them. His policies are flooding the streets with drugs that now go for $1 a hit. Someone can buy 26 hits of hydromorphone, which is an analog to heroin, for $30. These are drugs paid for by Canadian tax dollars under a program by the government that has led to a 300% increase in drug overdose deaths. Why will the Liberals not get some common sense, end dollars for drugs and put our people in treatment?
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Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 2:59:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people have to stay alive long enough to get treatment. People are dying because of the toxic drug supply. Safe supply allows people to stay alive long enough. In a CMHA study— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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The Speaker
  • May/16/23 3:00:00 p.m.
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Order. Please start from the top, the same courtesy I gave to the opposition leader. The hon. minister.
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Hon. Carolyn Bennett
  • May/16/23 3:00:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people have to stay alive long enough to get to treatment. People are dying because of the toxic, tainted drug supply. When people are on safe supply, the CMHA article from yesterday talked about how there is less drug use, fewer overdoses and less petty crime. This is an evidence-based project and program that meets the test of evidence and science, not a journalist who will only speak to the people who agree with him.
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Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)
  • May/16/23 3:00:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the theory is that if we flood the streets with hydromorphone, an opioid, then people will not use more dangerous drugs like fentanyl. The reality— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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The Speaker
  • May/16/23 3:01:01 p.m.
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Order. We want it to be quiet on both sides. I want everybody to take a deep breath. We want to hear the question, as well as the answer. The hon. Leader of the Opposition, from the top.
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Hon. Pierre Poilievre
  • May/16/23 3:01:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the theory is that, if the Prime Minister puts $100 million of hydromorphone on the streets, people will not use more dangerous drugs. The reality is that, in both reports from the National Post and The Globe and Mail, and the data from the ground, the addicts are taking the hydromorphone, selling it to kids, and taking the profits to buy fentanyl and dying of overdoses. The kids then get bored of hydromorphone and they take the deadly fentanyl. That is why people are dying. Will the government stop the policies that are killing people and put our people in treatment instead?
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Hon. Chrystia Freeland (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 3:01:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, some things are just beyond the pale. Our Minister of Mental Health is one of the most respected members of this House. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, who is a career politician and has done nothing else, she is a doctor. She devoted much of her life to delivering babies and bringing forth life. I heard the Leader of the Opposition shout across the aisle, “You are killing them.” That is shameful. That is entirely unacceptable.
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Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ)
  • May/16/23 3:02:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change announced consultations to develop a plan to meet the biodiversity commitments made at COP15. At the same time, that same minister—
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The Speaker
  • May/16/23 3:02:58 p.m.
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I am sorry, but I must interrupt the hon. member. I still hear members yelling on both sides of the House. There is shouting going on, talking really, just loudly. It is not a place where you have a conversation, while somebody else is talking, across the floor. Listen to the one person who is speaking. If members really want to speak to each other, they could cross over and whisper or go into the hallway.
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Ms. Kristina Michaud
  • May/16/23 3:03:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change announced consultations to develop a plan to meet the biodiversity commitments made at COP15. At the same time, that same minister is authorizing BP to drill for oil right in the middle of the largest marine refuge on the east coast. On the one hand, the minister wants to protect marine areas, and on the other hand, he is authorizing drilling in those same marine areas. Dr. Jekyll of the environment has become Mr. Hyde of the government. He knows full well that drilling does not protect marine areas.
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Hon. Steven Guilbeault (Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 3:04:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question, which gives me a chance to remind the House that no other country on the planet was ready to step up and host COP15. Canada was there for the international community, for science and for the protection of nature. We succeeded where everyone thought we would fail. We managed to secure an international agreement that most people would call historic. That is what leadership in Canada looks like when it comes to protecting nature.
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Ms. Kristina Michaud (Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, BQ)
  • May/16/23 3:04:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with his government's approval, 14 drilling permits will be auctioned off to allow drilling in areas that encroach on the most important marine refuges on the east coast. If the Minister of Environment and Climate Change does not see the contradiction in authorizing drilling precisely in areas that are supposed to be protected, then his pandering to the interests of big oil truly knows no bounds. He needs to explain this. If the designation “marine protected area” does not protect marine areas from oil drilling, what are they protected from, real estate speculation, perhaps?
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