44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 18, 2023 10:00AM
- May/18/23 10:14:16 a.m.
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moved:
That, given that,
(i) Canada is in the midst of an opioid crisis that has killed over 35,000 people since 2016,
(ii) since 2017, the federal government has spent over $800 million on its failed Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy, including over $100 million in funding for hard-drug supply projects across Canada, and plans to spend an additional $74 million to “scale up” these projects over the next five years,
(iii) since tax-funded drug supply was ramped up in 2020, opioid deaths have only gone up, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada,
(iv) in 2020, slightly less than 7,000 people died of opioid overdoses, while only 3,000 died of overdoses in 2016, according to the Library of Parliament,
(v) in British Columbia alone, yearly drug overdose deaths have increased by 330% between 2015 and 2022,
(vi) recently, a Global News reporter in East Vancouver was able to buy 26 hits for $30 in just 30 minutes of a dangerous and highly addictive opioid that is distributed in tax-funded drug supply programs and flooding our streets with cheap opioids,
the House call on the government to immediately reverse its deadly policies and redirect all funds from taxpayer-funded, hard drug programs to addiction, treatment and recovery programs.
He said: Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Cumberland—Colchester.
After eight years of the Prime Minister, everything feels broken. Life costs more. Work does not pay. Housing costs have doubled. The Prime Minister divides to control the people. Worst of all, crime and chaos, drugs and disorder rage in our streets. Nowhere is this worse than in the opioid overdose crisis, which has expanded so dramatically in the last several years.
The Prime Minister has a theory, backed up by a group of activists, most of them tax-funded, pharmaceutical companies and others that stand to gain from perpetuating the crisis. The theory is that, if the government provides powerful, heroin-like drugs that are uncontaminated, addicts will no longer use more deadly fentanyl, they will practise safe drug use and we will no longer have overdoses.
The Prime Minister has spent $78 million on 28 projects giving out free drugs. His recent budget proposes another $100 million for more tax-funded drugs. This includes heroin dispensary machines, where people can walk up, press some buttons and heroin pops out. It also includes prescriptions that allow people to take hydromorphone out into the street and use it or sell it, however they like. The theory is that this would divert away from more dangerous fentanyl. Let us look at the facts.
This is fact number one: Since the Prime Minister took office, there have been more than 34,000 apparent opioid overdose deaths. Here is another fact: This is not a problem the Prime Minister inherited; it is one he helped create. A total of 5,360 apparent opioid overdose deaths occurred from January to September 2022. This is approximately 20 deaths per day. It is a 173% increase from 2016, the first full calendar year he was in office. In other words, since his policies have come into effect, the overdose numbers have nearly tripled.
This is fact number three: While the deaths have risen across the country under the Prime Minister's policies, they have been the very worst in those provincial and municipal jurisdictions that have most enthusiastically embraced them. For example, in British Columbia, where in most jurisdictions, particularly Vancouver, all three levels of government have endorsed the so-called safe supply and decriminalization of hard drugs, the levels of overdose deaths have been the highest. Across B.C., the number of overdose deaths is up 330%.
The COVID excuse no longer works. This is a fact: Despite the claim, by supporters of handing out and decriminalizing drugs, that COVID was to blame for the crisis, what we have seen is that, as COVID moves farther away in the rearview mirror, the overdose deaths actually increase. For example, in March of this year, we had 9% more overdose deaths in B.C. than in March 2022, and 23% more overdose deaths than in March 2021. The more we move away from COVID, the more the overdose deaths increase. In fact, the deaths are not coinciding with COVID. They are coinciding with the recent decriminalization of crack, heroin, fentanyl and other hard drugs on January 1.
We are told that all the experts agree, just like the Liberals tell us all the time whenever they do something that defies common sense. We remember that all the experts agreed that printing money would not cause inflation, right before it led to a 40-year high, or that catch-and-release bail would not increase crime rates, before crime skyrocketed 32%.
We are told that giving out and decriminalizing hard drugs would reduce drug overdoses. These so-called experts are typically pie-in-the-sky theorists with no experience getting people off drugs, or they are members of the “misery industry”, those paid activists and public health bureaucrats whose jobs depend on the crisis continuing.
The real academic scholarship is clear, if the minister would even bother to read it. A thorough study by dozens of doctors and researchers from Stanford University, published in The Lancet and shared by a former adviser to President Obama, found that:
At the same time, evidence clearly shows the folly of assuming that population health inherently improves when health-care systems provide as many opioids as possible with as few possible regulatory constraints as possible. Policies that should attract scepticism include dispensing of hydromorphone from vending machines and prescribing a range of potent opioids and other drugs (eg., benzodiazepines, stimulants) to individuals with OUD in hopes of creating a safe addictive-drug supply and eliminating the supervision of methadone patients—ie, converting the system to unmonitored, long-term prescriptions on a take-home basis.
The study goes on to comment on the claim that hydromorphone, which is what the government is giving out, is safe. It continues:
Although expressed from a public health viewpoint, these messages echo the opioid manufacturers in presuming that unrestricted opioid provision can only improve public health. The faith of some advocates that opioids are safe as long as they are not derived from illicit markets is impossible to reconcile with the hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths from legal, pharmaceutical grade opioids that preceded the introduction of fentanyl into U.S. and Canadian heroin markets.
Furthermore, the safe supply program uses hydromorphone, which, according to one study published in a pharmacology journal, “produced similar subjective and physiological effects as heroin, but was more potent than heroin.” This is the stuff the minister and the Prime Minister are giving out using our tax dollars.
In a 2020 podcast, Dr. Mark Tyndall, one of Canada's earliest safer supply advocates, said that he had tested the urine of 15 patients who were on safer supply and found that 90% of them used fentanyl. In other words, they were not being diverted from fentanyl; they were using it in conjunction with safer supply. Now we know that it is even worse than that; the hydromorphone is being resold by the user to children, and the profit is being reinvested in buying fentanyl. In other words, the government is not only giving out dangerous hydromorphone but also actually, in effect, giving out fentanyl by giving the user the hydromorphone to sell to raise the revenue to buy fentanyl. The government is using our tax dollars to give out fentanyl on our streets and cause this crisis. Meanwhile, the cost of a hit of hydromorphone has dropped by between 70% and 95%, to roughly a dollar a hit, because the government is effectively paying for it and handing it out far and wide.
This makes no sense. The facts and evidence disprove it as a strategy. This is a radical and out-of-touch approach, which is not aligned with that of any other successful jurisdiction in the world. It is quite the opposite of what is being done in places like Portugal, which has focused on recovery, not on handing out free hard drugs. Therein lies the hope. We can turn the hurt the Prime Minister has caused into the hope Canadians need.
In Alberta, which is thoroughly rejecting the decriminalization and tax-funded handout of hard drugs and instead putting the money into recovery, we have seen, in the most recent data, a 30% reduction in the number of overdose deaths. That is because it is clear that what people suffering from addiction need is help getting off the drugs. To have that, we need recovery communities where they can go to get help with breaking the addiction and, if necessary, be given a bit of medication to relieve the side effects of getting off the drug, and then have the psychotherapy necessary to overcome the underlying reasons they got into drug addiction in the first place. We know this works. The evidence backs it up.
Therefore, our common-sense plan is to take the money away from subsidizing heroin-like drugs, and instead put all that money into recovery and treatment and sue the powerful pharmaceutical companies that helped cause this crisis, so we can use the proceeds of that lawsuit to fund even more recovery. That is how we are going to bring home our loved ones drug-free. It is how we will turn hurt into hope. It is the common sense of the common people, united for our common home: their home, my home, our home. Let us bring it home.
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- May/18/23 10:24:42 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have been wanting to ask the Leader of the Opposition this question: Seeing that 46,000 overdoses have been reversed in the safe consumption sites, what would the Leader of the Opposition do in defunding them? How would he speak to those who have lost a loved one because their overdose was not reversed?
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- May/18/23 10:29:13 a.m.
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Yes, there will be a free vote, Mr. Speaker.
More than just going back to my own riding and community, I have been to the member's community. When I got off the plane on Vancouver Island, I found that the people in his riding and across the island are disgusted with the member's policies and with the policies that he has embraced, both provincially and federally. I got off the plane and, first thing, the pilot told me that he had two addicts in his backyard the night before, rummaging around and trying to steal so that they could pay for their drugs. Then, I saw the front page of the local Nanaimo newspaper, saying there are record overdoses. Then, one of the people who were going to be at my rallies was in the hospital because he was attacked by some members of the local tent city.
We have seen a massive overdose crisis because of the policies that the member has embraced, both provincially with the NDP and federally with the current Liberal government. We, as Conservatives, are the only ones who would fix it by going away from legal and free drugs towards recovery to bring our loved ones home, drug-free.
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- May/18/23 10:46:21 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Sherbrooke.
Before I begin my speech, I want to acknowledge that I am rising today in Ottawa, which is on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people, who have lived on this land since time immemorial.
It is important that we take the time today to address this national public health crisis, but first, however, I want to talk about the wording of the motion we are debating today.
The opposition is calling on us to reverse deadly policies, yet the BC Coroners Service has repeatedly said that there is no indication that the prescribed safe supply is contributing to the drug deaths from the illicit drug supply. It seems that the Conservative Party wants to take us back to the failed ideology of the Harper-era drug policies. Assez, c'est assez.
Why can the opposition members not understand the harm that their narrative is causing. The member talks about zombies and talks about crazy policies. This is stigmatizing, and that is all they know how to do. Do they not hear the public outcry from people who actually have lived and living experiences with substance use, the people who have overdosed two and three times and have been revived at a safe consumption site and are now part of helping people get well?
Groups like Moms Stop the Harm, who have are the loved ones of people who have lost lives to overdoses and toxic drug supply, have asked the Leader of the Opposition to meet with them in early June. Will he meet with them and hear their story? It changes people's lives and their opinions.
This fight against evidence-based programs that are actually saving lives just has to stop. People are dying but not for the reasons they are giving.
Canada is facing a twofold epidemic: a toxic and illegal drug supply and an overdose crisis.
Every day, countless lives are shattered by the devastating consequences of the crisis and over 30,000 people have died.
We must recognize that substance use and addiction are two complex problems that we cannot resolve by simply ignoring them or using outdated approaches.
Families mourn the loss of their loved ones. Communities bear witness to the tragedy of addiction, and the individuals suffer often in silence because they are being stigmatized, as the opposition is doing today. It does not have to be this way. Substance use disorder, opiate use disorder, is a recognized, chronic medical condition that deserves the same respect and evidence-based care as any other illness.
By implementing safer drug supply initiatives, we can save lives and provide individuals with the opportunity to break free from the cycles of addiction, because there is no recovery for people who are dead.
We have to be there. When the person using drugs asks “where is the suboxone lady”, we need that absolutely real-time approach.
It is by implementing safer supply that we minimize the risks of people using drugs. We can ensure that those who use drugs have access to pharmaceutical-grade substances that are tested for potency, purity and prominence. It is the poisoned drug supply that is killing people. The opposition needs to understand that this is the problem we are dealing with, this toxic drug supply.
We can prevent accidental overdoses caused by drugs with unpredictable potency, contaminated substances or adulterants.
We can save lives; we must save lives. However, our approach goes beyond saving lives. It is about creating the path to recovery and rebuilding shattered lives and families.
When individuals have access to safer drugs, they engage with the health care professionals. They are able to seek support, healing and rehabilitation. It is like moving from Insite to Onsite in Vancouver. It provides an opportunity for connection, trust and the delivery of comprehensive care.
I want to be clear that this is not about encouraging drug use or turning a blind eye to the consequences. It is about acknowledging the reality that people will continue to use drugs and that by providing a safer alternative, we can minimize the harm and pave the way toward recovery and rehabilitation.
Illegal drugs being sold illegally is still illegal. Diversion is illegal.
We need to recognize that, behind the statistics and the headlines, there are real people who have dreams but are struggling. They deserve our empathy, our understanding and our support. Stigmatizing people who are battling a substance use problem and criticizing the care they receive will not help them seek treatment.
What is more, Canadian drug policy and international drug policy are aligned. Prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement make up the four internationally recognized pillars of drug policy.
We lived through 10 years of that Conservative government taking harm reduction out with its deadly war on drugs, and that has been proven to be ineffective, costly and deadly. These policies have also had a profound negative effect on Canada's most vulnerable, including indigenous people, children, young people, people living with disability, and immigrants and refugees.
While the Conservatives continue to try to take us back to the days when substance users were told that their lives did not matter, our government is using every tool at its disposal to put an end to this national public health crisis.
I would like to quote from the public safety and justice adviser to former prime minister Stephen Harper, Ben Perrin, who said, “Safer supply has been tested and found to be beneficial for people who have been unable to have treatment for whatever reason, and are long-term substance-abuse users. We’re talking about essentially substituting a contaminated street drug with a drug that has known contents and potency to help people stay alive, first of all, and also to be able to stabilize.”
Here is what some other important experts have said. Both the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario have made statements acknowledging safer supply is a harm reduction tool to support people with opioid use disorder.
I encourage the member to reread the CMAJ article from last September and see that on safe supply, the community health centre is providing the suite of health and social services reports. That is exactly what we do. It is exactly how we get them in the door so they can find a way to a better life.
As I continue to say, since 2017, safe consumption sites in Canada have received more than 4.1 million visits, reversed 46,000 overdoses and made 236,000 referrals to health and social services, which the Conservatives have vowed to defund.
What do we say to the families of those who would have died if this approach had not been offered to people who use drugs? If only I could say that this is the first time the Conservatives have not followed public health advice.
Unfortunately, this is the pattern for the official opposition. Despite overwhelming support and effectiveness of vaccines and despite the fact that 11% of maternal deaths are from unsafe abortions, that party continues to prefer ideology over evidence. We, as a country, must and can do better. I prefer the Canadian Medical Association Journal to the National Post. More important, this is how we will save lives.
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- May/18/23 11:02:44 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to address the motion from the member for Carleton and provide an update on our government's response to a complex challenge facing our country, the overdose crisis. This crisis is having a tragic and unrelenting toll on Canadians, their families and communities.
Each one of these deaths is tragic and creates a void in the community that can never be filled. Every person who has lost their life in this crisis has left behind someone who is grieving: a friend, a partner, a parent or a child.
There are four pillars recognized internationally as necessary for a successful substance use strategy: prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement. Our government is committed to a comprehensive approach that implements policies and supports for all four of these essential areas.
The dangerous, ideological and outdated approach proposed by the Conservative motion creates a false choice between harm reduction measures and treatment. We need both. As B.C. chief coroner Lisa Lapointe recently said, “There should not be a dichotomy between access to life-saving safer supply and access to life-saving treatment options”.
The intent of this motion is simply to create fear, increase stigmatization and score political points with the Conservative base. It is dangerous, anti‑science and would cost lives if implemented.
The toxic drug supply and overdose crisis is a daily worry for our government. When we think of the lives lost, the repercussions for communities, the devastating losses for families and the impact on the economy, we realize that it is a national tragedy.
It has never been more important for all levels of government, partners and stakeholders to work together to turn this crisis around.
To find solutions, we must first understand the many different factors that drive substance use. That must include addressing mental health. Harmful patterns of substance use are established over time. Some people can trace their substance use back to early childhood trauma. Others may be affected by poverty or housing instability.
While many people in Canada struggle with mental health problems, some groups face particular challenges because of systemic racism, discrimination, socio-economic status or social exclusion.
Marginalized groups are often victims of stigmatization or prejudice, which places them at higher risk. These include youth, indigenous peoples, racialized communities and LGBTQ+ people.
Stigma is harmful in several ways.
Stigma discourages people from seeking help and reduces their chances of getting help when they do seek it. It can also make it difficult to get the support needed to implement policies and programs to help people who use substances.
That is because there is still a deep-seated misconception that addiction is a choice, and that is just not true.
Addiction is a medical condition that can be treated.
The fact is that people who use substances need support, not judgment. They need community, not isolation. They need empathy and understanding, not stigma. When substance use is stigmatized, it creates a very dangerous situation. It can lead to people using drugs alone and prevent them from seeking help. That is why we need to provide a continuum of care to people who use substances, one that is woven through every area of their lives. Prevention, treatment and harm reduction measures all have a role to play, as too do actions that reduce stigma and provide continued access to health and social supports for individuals.
Our goal is to reduce the stigma and risks associated with substance use while providing people who use drugs with better access to health and social services.
To achieve this, Canada must address the risks of substance use from a comprehensive societal perspective.
Since 2017, the government has invested more than $1 billion in prevention, treatment, risk reduction and enforcement. This is in addition to the investments made by provincial governments within their jurisdictions.
The Government of Canada is now working with the provinces and territories on a transformative multidisciplinary care model that integrates patient centred mental health and substance use care.
From increased access to mental and substance use health through primary care to improve data and better sharing of health information between the professionals they consult, these tailor-made agreements with provinces and territories would improve access to the supports Canadians need when they need it.
However, we know that we need to do more, and that includes trying innovative approaches in order to save lives. It also includes making it easier for people who use drugs to access health and social services, such as treatment for people who are ready for it.
Budget 2023 sets out our plan to transfer nearly $200 billion to the provinces and territories over the next few years to improve health care, including support for mental health and substance use services. This will be done through a combination of increases to the Canada health transfer and new 10-year agreements with the provinces and territories.
These investments would help us build, among other things, a resilient health workforce that provides Canadians with high-quality, effective and safe health services when they need them. That includes access to timely, equitable and quality mental health, substance use and addiction services.
Through our tailored bilateral agreements, we will invest $25 billion over 10 years to work with the provinces and territories to advance shared health priorities.
This approach is the most effective way to integrate mental health and substance use services throughout the health care system.
This investment is in addition to the $2.4 billion over the next four years that will still be provided to the provinces and territories for mental health and addiction services as part of the 2017 common statement of principle on shared health priorities.
Harm reduction services are a vital part of a comprehensive, compassionate and collaborative public health approach to problematic substance use that includes prevention, treatment and additional social and health supports.
We cannot allow the Conservative Party's ideological agenda to shut down the safe consumption sites that have prevented more than 46,000 overdoses since 2017.
Safe consumption sites replace contaminated street drugs with a drug of known content and potency to keep people alive.
We need to keep people alive until they are ready to access treatment. We cannot allow the Conservatives to take us back to the failed ideology of the past.
Together, we can create real systemic change and give every person in Canada the support they need to live long and healthy lives.
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- May/18/23 11:15:45 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to answer that question.
As I was saying, the four pillars are prevention, risk reduction, treatment and enforcement. By relying on these four pillars, we can provide solutions that are better adapted to each person using drugs. The latest statistics show that 46,000 overdoses have been reversed at safe consumption sites. That clearly shows that these sites are essential and are an important part of the range of solutions that have been proposed to address this national crisis.
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Mr. Speaker, much as I am disappointed to see this motion come forward in the manner it has, I am also happy to see that we are having this conversation and debate today, because over 35,000 people have died from a toxic drug supply in this country since 2016.
This is not an opioid crisis as the motion states; rather, these deaths have occurred because of a toxic, unregulated drug supply, and I am going to speak to a couple of things in the motion.
First, (iii) of the motion states:
since tax-funded drug supply was ramped up in 2020, opioid deaths have only gone up, according to the Public Health Agency
Yes, of course, they have. Between 2016 and 2020, fentanyl became the predominant drug on the market, meaning more people were accessing it instead of pills like oxycontin. Fentanyl analogs, like carfentanil and benzodiazepines, also appeared in the drug supply at this time. More people have died because the fentanyl supply has become more widely accessible and more volatile.
There were fewer than 1,000 people across Canada, probably around 500, accessing safe supply in 2020, with a denominator of tens of thousands of people were using fentanyl, and probably hundreds of thousands. There were 22,000 people who died from an overdose by 2020 under the current government. It is impossible that the 500 people or fewer who were on safe supply, the mass majority of whom are alive in 2023, drove those 22,000 deaths. Conservatives need to learn to do the math and listen to the experts.
It states in (iv) of the motion:
in 2020, slightly less than 7,000 people died of opioid overdoses, while only 3,000 died of overdoses in 2016, according to the Library of Parliament
Again, Conservatives cannot back that up. Those people died from a toxic drug supply. We know these deaths are not occurring because of the government's safe supply and safe injection programs, and to assert that is disinformation.
I am going to talk about some of the activists the government has highlighted. It said that activists are leading the safe supply charge. We know that provincial chief coroners and chief medical health officers across the country, like in my home province, and the police have said that.
I will read a quote from the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs, which made it very clear that its members cannot police their way out of this because it is a health issue. It proposed “diverting people dealing with substance abuse or addiction issues away from the criminal system and toward social services and health care. The association stipulated such a change would need to be synchronized nationally.” The government has not done this.
It also cited in its report that it “endorsed access to users of a safe supply pharmaceutical-grade opioids to combat the uncertain composition of illegal street drugs, which is the cause of many opioid overdoses.”
“It further made a recommendation in favour of supervised consumption sites — where people could use drugs in a clean, safe environment, under the supervision of health professionals trained in emergency intervention.”
The activists are supporting safe supply. This is deeply concerning when I see the Conservative leader cite that it is only activists who are advocating.
Also, there is one thing in the speech by the Conservative leader that I would like to correct. He talked about incidents of youth being trafficked safer supply.
Today, in The Globe and Mail:
Vancouver Police, asked...about the possible sale of such narcotics, said in a recent statement that “there's always a potential” for safe-supply medication to be sold on the illicit market.
However, the force added they are not aware of any incidents in Vancouver in which safe supply has been trafficked to youth...
This was in response to the comments the Conservative leader has made here in the House of Commons. I can assure the House that the members of the Vancouver police know and are certain that youth are being targeted with illegal, unregulated, poisoned drugs, such as fentanyl, which is not regulated. This is what we are dealing with.
In (vi) of the motion it states:
recently, a Global News reporter in East Vancouver was able to buy 26 hits for $30 in just 30 minutes of a dangerous and highly addictive opioid that is distributed in tax-funded drug supply programs and flooding our streets with cheap opioids,
People can buy anything on that corner and have been able to for decades, at least over 50 years, so it is not great evidence if they go to the most robust drug-selling corner in Canada and that is what they come back with.
The photos of what they purchased show that most drugs were in a blister pack. A blister pack is issued to one patient. So, the Global reporter bought most of the 26 pills from just one person, and it is not evidence of a wide-scale diversion to buy from one person.
The motion today could have been about calling on the government to create an emergency committee of Parliament to deal with the toxic drug crisis. It is the leading cause of unnatural death in my home province; more than motor vehicle accidents, more than homicide and more than death by suicide. However, the Conservatives did not do that. They chose to bring forward this motion, which creates more stigma and more harm actually.
A person who decides to use a single dose of a toxic drug at a weekend party is as vulnerable as any struggling person with problematic substance use, and the result can be the same: a fatal, toxic drug overdose. I know this, because in my home community, we have seen lots of people die, and lots of young men. The average age of people who are dying is 44, and the majority of them are men dying at home alone.
Guy Felicella, a peer clinical supervisor at the B.C. Centre on Substance Use, said that “People who aren't ready, able or interested in addressing their addiction don't deserve to die from the toxic drug supply.” I agree.
I have risen in the House on many occasions, as members know very well, in support of a health-based approach to substance use. I would like to welcome all members from all sides of the House who are joining our call for increased investment to respond to this crisis and for people who are suffering with substance use disorder. The sooner we can actually come together across political lines to make this happen, the sooner we are going to save lives.
This is a national health crisis, and we are not acting like that. However, we need to understand what we are dealing with when looking at this crisis. It is not the easy, simplistic approach that the Conservatives are bringing forward. This crisis will never end through just investing in treatment and recovery without recognizing that this is a complex emergency, it is multi-faceted and it requires harm reduction as well, which go hand in hand; they are not pitted against each other.
Government members want to say that they are doing everything they can, but they spent less than 1% of what they spent on the COVID-19 health crisis. This is not responding to a health crisis in the way that needs to happen. We saw how they responded to SARS, HIV and COVID, and they need to do what they did there. They need to pull everyone together. They cannot just download treatment and recovery to the provinces. We saw what Portugal did. It stepped up and showed us what courage looks like and what is needed: investments in therapeutic treatment, housing and ensuring that we are dealing with this issue as a health crisis, not a criminal issue. It takes a multi-faceted approach, and I am really encouraging that today, but we need to simply do more of what we talked about.
We need to listen to experts. It is so important that everybody in the House listen to the experts. I travelled across this country when I was talking about my bill, Bill C-216, which was just a reflection of the Expert Task Force on Substance Use. I was able to meet with people on the front line of this crisis, such as people who use substance and experts, and the whole time they encouraged us to listen to the report.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police of Canada, as I have cited, has come forward very much in alignment with the expert task force, and actually had a seat on that task force. The task force was unanimous in that we need to stop criminalizing people who use substances, we need to expunge records of people who have been charged with personal possession, and we need to ensure that people have access to a safe supply and treatment on demand. So, we meet them where they are at and we invest in recovery, education and prevention, because we know that when people relapse, we need to catch them, but we also need to meet them where they are at through the whole thing.
My bill was defeated, as members know. The Conservatives teamed up with the majority of the Liberals and they voted against my bill, which was supported by the Bloc, the Greens and the NDP. I know that members of the Bloc had some issues with my bill, but they wanted to at least get it to committee and listen to the experts, which both the Conservatives and Liberals would not do, despite the fact that it just reflected the government's own Expert Task Force on Substance Use.
Moms Stop the Harm is coming to the Hill on the anniversary of the bill, which comes up not next week, our break week, but when we come back. It will be June 1. They are coming here because they are upset that, a year later, not a lot has changed. That bill would have given the government 12 months to come back with a strategy on how to respond to the expert task force on substance use, but they voted against it. I am hoping that every member in this House will at least meet the moms, and when they go back to their riding, talk to their chief medical health officer. I have not found one chief medical health officer, or a coroner, who does not support taking a multi-faceted approach and supporting safer supply.
I also urge the leader of the official opposition to meet with the chiefs of police. Hopefully, again, he will meet with the moms from Moms Stop the Harm. I know that the leader of the official opposition has been using Global News reports, the National Post and even Conrad Black to get his advice on how to move forward in terms of this toxic drug crisis.
We really need to get back to ensuring that we are listening to the report by the expert task force. I want to talk about who was on it. There were public health officials; indigenous health leaders; community health leaders; business, labour, university and social service agencies; the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs; public policy thinkers; and people with lived and living experience. They were unanimous in their recommendations. I want to give huge credit and thanks to that task force, because they put a lot of work in. Again, they embraced the four-pillar approach.
I understand that it takes courage to make this journey. We saw courage in Vancouver under former senator Larry Campbell. He was a police officer, then the chief coroner for British Columbia and then the mayor of Vancouver. He was the one who brought in Insite and safe consumption sites to save lives. That is the kind of courage we need today from everybody here. Again, we can look to other countries, such as Portugal, for their treatment and recovery programs. We can look at Switzerland, which has a safe supply model. There are models around the world.
I hope that we can come together today and talk about how we can find a pathway to actually work together. However, the stigma that is attached to substances is a huge barrier for people when it comes to getting help. We know that even today's motion is triggering a lot of people who use substances and were looking at safe supply as a pathway out of supporting the unregulated toxic drug supply that is coming from the streets. This supply is manufactured, distributed and marketed through organized crime.
We know we need to go further. We have to invest in a full spectrum to support people who use substances, including supervised consumption sites; real-time, on-demand public treatment options; and pharmaceutical-grade options and alternatives to illegal street drugs. We also have to ensure that people have housing. I was in the riding of my good colleague, the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, and we went to a no-barrier housing place. It was great to see some of the people there being able to access OAT or safer supply, which they could not do when they were homeless, living in the bush or living wherever they could. We need to make sure that this is included.
When we call for more treatment services, let us recognize that, first, we must keep people alive by reducing their exposure to the toxicity of illegal street drugs. My good friend, the member for Vancouver East, represents the Downtown Eastside, a community struggling for survival and ravaged by toxic drug deaths. She once told this House that dead people cannot be treated. How true is that?
I just want to also do some fact checking here. I am going to read a quote from Corey Ranger. He is a clinical nurse specialist from AIDS Vancouver Island. He cites that there are “more sensationalist media hit-pieces about safe supply than actual safe supply. In BC, well-over 101,000 people are at risk of fatal drug poisonings, and less than 5% of those individuals are able to get a ‘safe supply’”. That is exactly what is happening. This incremental approach by the government is failing people who use substances. We know incrementalism costs lives in a health crisis.
However, the Conservatives' misinformation also costs lives. It is deadly. I do appreciate the Conservatives bringing forward this notion to move money from harm reduction to treatment, but even that is not close to enough money.
I want to read a quote from Guy Felicella. He says, “I've been to/left treatment over a dozen times to try & stay sober. If it wasn't for harm reduction services like supervised consumption sites, safer alternatives, naloxone and clean supplies to protect me in my relapses, I wouldn't be alive today or have the decade of sobriety that I do. Don't listen to people who attempt to misinform you that harm reduction enables drug use; it enables people to stay alive and for many to try recovery again.”
I want to make sure that we talk about the importance of trauma-informed treatment and ensure that it is available to people. A constituent wrote to me and said he was going to have to sell his house to keep his son in treatment; it was $300 a day. That is completely unacceptable. We can look to Portugal, which has taken huge steps on this. In my home community of the Alberni Valley, we lost 20 people by the eight-month mark last year. It is a community of 30,000 people. We are four times the national average, and this disproportionately impacts indigenous people.
I think we all know the numbers. I do not need to get too heavily into that. I hope every member of this House will read the report from the expert task force on substance use. I hope everyone will reach out to their community leaders, to their chief medical health officer, to their law enforcement, to the experts in their community and, most importantly, the moms who have lost loved ones, in the week ahead. This is something that I will be advocating for.
I am going to talk about safe supply and the pilots that have been happening. Ottawa has had a significant increase. There is a claim that people do not actually use their safe supply and that they just sell it to others. This is a quote from the former Stephen Harper legal adviser, Professor Ben Perrin. He stated, “Participants in the Ottawa safer supply program reduced their use of illicit fentanyl by 85% while on the program.”
We have seen great results at Parkdale Queen West. In London, Dr. Sereda has been running a really important program. We know that safer supply reduces the risk of death and overdose, reduces reliance on an unregulated supply of drugs, increases access to engagement with health and social services, improves social well-being and stability, reduces ER visits and hospitalizations, improves physical and mental health, and reduces health care costs. It also reduces criminal activity. Those are the facts from these studies. It certainly helps people get their life back.
We have heard some participants speak about what safe supply has done for them. These are some of the things people have said: “My whole lifestyle improved”, “Got my life back”, “My life has improved drastically”, “It saved my life”, “I function productively in society”, “My life is getting better”, “Frees time to do more constructive things”, “More energy and confidence to focus on my art” and “Opened a whole new outlook and positive way of living”. The list is long.
I know that what we are doing is not working. We are seeing a government take a very weak approach in responding to a health crisis; the lack of investments and the lack of urgency show the underlying stigma. This is the stigma, right there with the government and its failed approach, as well as its inability to pull together all parties in this crisis.
One thing I understand about the Conservatives and what they are bringing forward is frustration. Canadians are frustrated by the lack of action by the government to respond to this crisis. However, this does not mean that the response should be guided by misinformation. It does not mean we cut off safe supply as a tool to keep people alive, to ensure that people are able to get the help they need and to find a pathway to recovery and to treatment.
This motion today, to gut the harm reduction program and to stop safe supply in its tracks without proper evidence and science, does not make sense. It goes against what police, chief medical officers, coroners, moms, experts, those the Conservatives deem as activists, and the expert task force on substance use say.
I hope this dialogue, this conversation, can be turned around. I hope we can try to come together and find some common ground to deal with this crisis that is right before us. It is impacting everybody here.
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- May/18/23 12:13:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I apologize.
After eight years of the Liberal government, we have seen a dramatic increase in opioid overdoses across the country. Obviously, whatever the Liberals are doing right now is not working. Even in the last two years, we have seen dramatic year-over-year increases in overdoses. It is obvious that handing out free drugs to people who are addicted to drugs is not solving the problem. Will the member not agree that this is a failed approach and that we need to return to treatment to get people off of using drugs?
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- May/18/23 12:16:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Peterborough—Kawartha.
After eight years of the Prime Minister, everything feels broken. Life costs more. Work does not pay, and housing costs have doubled. The Prime Minister divides to control the people. Worst of all, crime and chaos, and drugs and disorder rage in our streets. Nowhere is it worse than the opioid overdose crisis that has expanded so dramatically in the last several years.
This is an important debate we are having today. The opioid addiction crisis is real, and it is costing Canadian lives. The unimaginable pain that those who are suffering from addictions are going through, as well as that of their families, their friends and their loved ones, cannot be understated.
I know that many of us here have probably gone to too many funerals, and I know I have, of those who were suffering from addiction because of this crisis. Many times when we talk about those who are addicted or people who are struggling with addiction, we think about the people who we might see in the downtown or who might be homeless. It is true, some of them are. However, very often they are also the people we know, people we may not have expected, people who might be family members, co-workers, friends or neighbours, people who we would not expect to be in that situation but are in this crisis and are suffering from addiction.
We know there is no simple solution. The issue here is very complex and there are many factors that affect it. What we can see is that the Liberal government approach is not working. The Liberal plan is not helping those who are struggling to get past their addiction and fully recover. In fact, those Liberal policies have actually made the situation worse.
I want to read from the text of the motion today. It says:
...given that,
(i) Canada is in the midst of an opioid crisis that has killed over 35,000 people since 2016,
(ii) since 2017, the federal government has spent over $800 million on its failed Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy, including over $100 million in funding for hard-drug supply projects across Canada, and plans to spend an additional $74 million to “scale up” these projects over the next five years,
(iii) since tax-funded drug supply was ramped up in 2020, opioid deaths have only gone up, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada,
(iv) in 2020, slightly less than 7,000 people died of opioid overdoses, while only 3,000 died of overdoses in 2016, according to the Library of Parliament,
(v) in British Columbia alone, yearly drug overdose deaths have increased by 330% between 2015 and 2022,
(vi) recently, a Global News reporter in East Vancouver was able to buy 26 hits for $30 in just 30 minutes of a dangerous and highly addictive opioid that is distributed in tax-funded drug supply programs and flooding our streets with cheap opioids,
the House call on the government to immediately reverse its deadly policies and redirect all funds from taxpayer-funded, hard drug programs to addiction, treatment and recovery programs.
What would Conservatives do?
Conservatives believe that addiction is a health condition and that it should be treated as such. A Conservative government would have a recovery-oriented system of care that helps people on their journey. This means prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery. Conservatives believe that we have to meet people where they are at, but we need to stop leaving them there. We should be helping them get their lives and their families back, and help them fully recover.
It is not just that the Liberal program is a failed experiment that has been tried and which has failed in other cities in other parts of the world. The scary part is that their program is adding more drugs to the streets, which is making the drug supply cheaper, so there are now more drugs on the streets. It has become more affordable for those trying to purchase them.
There is a B.C.-based physician who says that, before safe supply, before the government's program, 8 milligrams of hydromorphone tablets sold for $10 in Vancouver's downtown east side. The doctor says it now costs between 50¢ and a dollar.
Dr. Vincent Lam, the medical director of Coderix Addiction Therapy, provided insight into the situation in downtown Toronto, so we are going from from Vancouver to Toronto. According to his patients, 8 milligrams of the same drug tablets that used to go for $20 on the street now sell for between two dollars and five dollars, and sometimes as little as one dollar.
A doctor in Ottawa said that 24 milligrams of hydromorphone, which they believe came from the city's safe supply facilities, sells for two dollars on the street. Before safe supply, they were selling for $20 to $30. A representative from the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users said that the system is broken. They estimated that up to 80% of safe supply drugs in Nanaimo, B.C., are currently being diverted. The system definitely is broken. It is not working.
What is happening is that those who are struggling with these addictions are selling the drugs they are receiving from the government. They are selling them because they need stronger drugs. These ones do not work any more. They are selling them at such a low cost that even our young Canadians, children and youth, are able to buy them for one or two dollars a hit. We are creating a cycle where more and more Canadians are getting more addicted rather than breaking that addiction.
This crisis has left Canadians struggling right across the country, and it does not see background or religion. I have talked to many parents in South Asian communities who have seen their children go through these addictions and go through the struggle.
I visited a gurdwara in Surrey where the head of the gurdwara said that they have sent home international students, and we are talking hundreds across the country. They have had to send home their bodies. Many of them have stresses. There are pressures that they face, having come to Canada. They are young, and it is different, so there is loneliness. There are pressures on them, financial stress. Many of them have become addicted to drugs, and many of them have overdosed. This itself has become a pandemic and a serious crisis in the community.
All of this, addictions, the use of drugs and the supply of drugs, have also led to more gang activity as well, which has led to more of our young people dying. They are being killed in gang activity. Conservatives' common-sense plan would end taxpayer dollars for drugs and put people in addiction, treatment and recovery programs. Conservatives will bring our loved ones home, drug-free.
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- May/18/23 12:27:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the unfortunate part of this debate is that the government has chosen to pick certain facts to go on and it ignores other facts. The fact of the matter is that deaths have been going up. Opioid overdoses have gone up. Drugs supplied by the government to those struggling with addiction are now available on the streets, and the cost of drugs has been reduced, so they can be purchased by our young people. That is the reality. That is what is happening across our country, and that is what is making this crisis worse.
That is why we are saying that we need to stop the taxpayer-funded drugs and help these Canadians suffering from addictions with treatment.
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- May/18/23 12:42:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, again, the statistics speak for themselves. Overdoses are up 300%; that is just the reality of it.
I really want to touch on a critical point, and that is the fear that has been instilled in experts who are on the ground. I am going to read something from somebody who has worked for three decades in treatment and recovery. This person, for the record, is not a Conservative.
This person says, “I have to agree with the leader 100%... But for people speaking out against it, you become vilified, like we don't care about people. Hydromorphone doesn't even come close to the strength of fentanyl. I had one young fellow tell me, if someone dies from an overdose, people are trying to find out who the dealer is so they can purchase from them because of the strength. We are just throwing—
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- May/18/23 12:46:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Winnipeg North.
I am grateful for this opportunity to speak today to discuss the ongoing toxic drug overdose crisis. While I do that, my thoughts are on the many people we have lost in London, Ontario, a lot of friends and family, to this overdose crisis, which continues to exact a heartbreaking toll on individuals, families and communities across the country.
As the representative for London West and the former municipal representative for the downtown core of London, I have had the opportunity to see first-hand the hard work and dedication that our frontline workers have put into saving lives and improving outcomes for Londoners experiencing addiction.
I want to take this opportunity to thank them and to thank the Middlesex-London Health Unit, the Regional HIV/AIDS, the London InterCommunity Health Centre and anyone else who has dedicated their time, our volunteers, to helping the most vulnerable people experiencing this disease that has put them through unimaginable situations.
This dual pandemic has impacted people from all walks of life, ages, education levels and party lines, including many of us in the House today. We can no longer say that it is a stranger or that it is happening over there, because it is happening in all our communities. We are talking about our children, our friends, our parents and our neighbours, which is why I cannot understate the importance of a compassionate, collaborative and integrated response to reducing substance harms and saving lives.
Since 2016, Dr. Andrea Sereda of the London InterCommunity Health Centre has been running a safer supply program that has saved countless lives. Thank God, she is doing this work as an experienced doctor. We are not taking opinions from op-eds or online news; we are actually looking at studies that have been conducted by experts in the field. However, the program received federal funding in March of 2020.
Between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021, overdoses in the area dropped from 59% to 23%, 44% of the clients had not committed a crime to pay for drugs since beginning the program and one third of clients stopped using IV drugs. This is only one small piece of the empirical evidence that a safer supply actually works.
Prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement make up the four internationally-recognized pillars of drug policy. Sadly, the Conservative Party does not understand the importance of the harm reduction pillar, preferring instead to ignore hard evidence and research, and is taking us back to the failed ideology of the Harper-era drug policy, which was costly, ineffective and deadly.
We are hearing from experts themselves, especially in communities like London, Ontario, where we know that a safer supply is working, that we need to continue to explore all avenues to address this ongoing crisis.
Our government, on the other hand, is committed to responding to this crisis from a whole-of-system and evidence-based approach. To date, we have launched many actions and investments to address the overdose crisis, including increased naloxone access, increased options for opioid agonist treatment, supervised consumption sites, which we have in the community of London, Ontario, and safer supply programs, whose importance, sadly, continues to be negated by the opposition.
An integral part of our response is ensuring that we have the best research evidence to inform our health policies and practices, and ultimately lead to better health and safety outcomes for all Canadians. This is where the incredible work of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, or CIHR, comes in.
Over the last five years, CIHR has invested more than $179 million in research related to substance use, including $75 million in research related to opioid use alone. With its help, our government is supporting priority research initiatives that are now helping policy-makers and health care providers identify effective solutions for addressing the overdose crisis.
I want to begin by highlighting a pan-Canadian research network that is focused on substance use, the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse, or CRISM, which connects researchers, service providers, decision-makers and people with lived experience of substance use from across Canada.
CRISM's overall objective is to translate evidence-based interventions for substance use into clinical practice, community-based prevention, harm reduction and health system changes. The network is now recognized as a critical network that responds to the policy and evidence needs of decision-makers.
With ongoing support from the federal government, CRISM is able to conduct clinical trials, develop national treatment guidelines, promote the effective implementation of evidence-based interventions into clinical and community settings, and provide key evidence for decision-makers, like ourselves.
In June 2022, our government announced that it would be renewing CRISM with an investment of $17 million over six years to build and expand on the success of the initiative’s first phase, including by increasing the number of regional nodes from four to five to enhance geographic coverage.
This renewed investment also includes $5 million over four years for CRISM to undertake a national controlled trial in the management of methamphetamine-use disorder. The expertise and guidance that CRISM provides is integral to improving the quality of care and quality of life for people in Canada who use substances.
Outside of this investment, in 2019, CIHR also invested $1.5 million to support the evaluation of interventions implemented across Canada in response to the opioid crisis. This included evaluation of overdose prevention sites, rapid access addiction medicine models of care and naloxone programs, just to name a few. It also included research to evaluate non-pharmacological interventions for pain management.
Research to address the toxic drug and overdose crisis became even more critical during COVID-19, which exacerbated the existing crisis to a devastating extent. As part of the pandemic response, our government committed to, through CIHR, launching a funding opportunity in 2019 to support the evaluation research into harm-reduction approaches and to address the opioid crisis in the context of COVID-19. We know that this has grown since COVID-19.
This funding opportunity provided $2.2 million to support five research projects to assess the implementation and impact of safer supply interventions and supervised consumption sites, thereby addressing pressing evidence needs of decision-makers and knowledge-users in the area of harm reduction.
Additionally, CIHR mobilized CRISM to rapidly develop six national guidance documents to support people who used drugs, decision-makers and care providers during COVID-19, for example, guidance on telemedicine support for addiction services. We are also prioritizing bold policy changes to help people who use substances on their journey.
Last year, our government announced a time-limited exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to the province of British Columbia, allowing for the personal possession of small amounts of certain illegal substances. Through this exemption, we will be able to reduce the stigma, the fear and the shame that keeps people who use drugs silent about their use, or using alone, and help more people access life-saving support and treatment.
Notably, the exemption included requirements related to comprehensive monitoring and evaluation. In addition to efforts led by B.C., our government is supporting an arms-length evaluation of this exemption.
This five-year evaluation project, led by CRISM, will study the impacts of the exemption and help us understand the full impacts of decriminalization in B.C., including the health and socio-economic impacts. This scientific evidence will be critical to ongoing decision-making as it relates to the overdose crisis.
We are also supporting critical research through CIHR’s investigator-led programs, which supports world-class research submitted by scientists at universities and research institutions across the country.
In addition to supporting the translation of research into improved programs and policies related to substance-use treatment and prevention, we will also be supporting research focused on improving health human resources related to substance use.
For example, CIHR is currently funding a project led by Dr. Kathleen Leslie and Dr. Mary Bartram at Athabasca University that will provide better information about policy options and stakeholder priorities to help create a pan-Canadian mental health and substance-use workforce strategy. This strategy will support the development of a high-quality, sustainable, diverse and culturally competent workforce that will have the capacity to provide equitable access to mental health and substance-use services for all Canadians.
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- May/18/23 1:02:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we are hearing a lot about stats and numbers. The one that really sinks in for me personally is the fact that we have seen reversed overdoses through safe consumption sites, to the tune of over 45,000 since 2017. Let us think about the profound impact that has had on thousands of lives. That is the number that comes to my mind. It is a very real and tangible number. All one needs to do is listen to what people near safe consumption sites have to say and what the first responders and the many different experts are saying.
A number of years ago, when I was sitting with third party status, we had a big debate about consumption sites. The reason we were debating them then was that the Conservative Party wanted to shut down Insite, a consumption site located in downtown east Vancouver. They wanted to shut it down. If it had not been for a Supreme Court of Canada decision, they might have been successful at shutting it down. Because the Supreme Court gave a wake-up call to Steven Harper, ultimately that site was able to survive.
If we take a look at how that site came to be, I think it amplifies or exemplifies why it is that we need to recognize that it is not just about one government alone. It takes a community. Individuals, the province, the municipality and first responders all came to the table and articulated a wide spectrum of reasons and rationale as to why consumption sites are important. That happened many years ago. It was about two decades ago. What we saw was that Steven Harper attempted to shut it down. He was the prime minister, and he attempted to shut it down. That is—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- May/18/23 1:28:23 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, one of thing I have been having trouble with in the debate today is that there are certain elements of an entire spectrum of care required for the opioid crisis, but one is being pulled out as if it is the only one being proposed by the government, which is not true.
Also, the experience in my community seems to be very different from what I hear from the members opposite. In 2022 in Toronto, 1,900 overdoses were reversed because of safe consumption sites. They actually saved the lives of almost 2,000 people in my home city. There is a safe consumption site in my own community, and our experience with it is that it has provided a place of safety to people in need. We are not seeing the same impacts being described.
Does the member opposite not see any value in saving lives, as I have said are being saved in Toronto, and in ensuring we provide an entire continuum of services?
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- May/18/23 2:25:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, emissions only went down when the government actually locked down the country for COVID, if it wants to do that forever.
The Prime Minister decriminalized crack, heroin and other hard drugs on January 31. He has flooded the streets with taxpayer-funded hydromorphone, and today we have learned the tragic results. The report from British Columbia shows that seven people are dying every day of overdoses. In April, overdose rates were up 17%.
This experiment has failed. When will the Prime Minister get common sense, get drugs off our streets and get our people into treatment?
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- May/18/23 3:59:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise in this chamber today to speak on this motion.
In my riding, the community of Richmond Centre, I have heard of many heartbreaking incidents. Michael, an artist, an empath and a gentle, compassionate young individual passed away at age 26 from a tainted supply of drugs. Curtis was an intelligent, caring and adventurous person. He was 36 when he passed away from drug overdoses and poisonings. Countless incidents like these happen in British Columbia and across Canada. It breaks my heart to see mothers, fathers, friends and families lose their dearly loved ones.
Last year, in Richmond, 29 people died of drug poisoning, and 2,314 died in British Columbia. On CBC news today, it said that in British Columbia 206 people were suspected to have died of toxic drugs in April alone this year.
Let us talk about the link between mental health and substance use. We know that mental health and substance use is affecting more and more Canadians and requires collaboration across all levels of government as well as with other partners in our community. It is for that reason that, in 2021, Canada’s first-ever ministry of mental health and addictions was created, and showed the interconnected nature of mental health with substance use.
It has also highlighted our government’s commitment to take action through an integrated approach on these issues that have significantly impacted individuals, their families and communities. It is important to stress that mental illness and substance use often go hand in hand. People with mental illnesses are twice as likely to have a substance use disorder compared to the general population.
Substance use can also increase the underlying risk of mental health issues and can exacerbate the symptoms of existing mental health issues. In fact, 50% of people in treatment for substance use also live with mental illness. We know that childhood trauma, low income, lack of access to stable housing, discrimination, racism, and the historical and ongoing effects of colonization and the residential school system on indigenous communities all play a major factor.
There are many challenges faced by Canadians experiencing mental illness and harms from substance use. These include a lack of available services and supports close to home, care that is not comprehensive or responsive to an individual’s needs, and the experience of stigma and discrimination, both in seeking care and in society.
Youth and young adults, indigenous peoples, Black Canadians and those identifying as LGBTQ2S+ are among those Canadians impacted the most. As a result of unmet or under-addressed mental health and substance use needs, individuals and communities face significant health, social and economic burdens. This includes paying out of pocket for services, increased emergency department visits and public safety concerns.
Our government has long recognized that Canadians with mental health and substance use needs require ongoing supports to meet a complexity of needs. We have seen the record of the Conservatives on this issue. They stand up in the chamber and use stigmatizing language to try and play politics with this issue, and act like they are not misleading Canadians with a bias or one-sided perspective on this crisis.
Canadians have spoken of the complexity of these mental health and substance use issues, and how often they are interconnected with other social issues, such as homelessness.
For example, we know that up to 75% of women experiencing homelessness also experience mental illness. In British Columbia, 67% of people experiencing homelessness or housing instability identified substance use issues, and 51% identified mental health as a concern.
Accessing appropriate housing options that provide ready access to needed wraparound supports can be a significant challenge, due to housing shortages and maintenance issues with existing housing; insufficient community-based, trained provider capacity; and silos between health, housing and social sectors.
This is why our government is investing in affordable housing for Canadians, including $4 billion through the rapid housing initiative, aimed at quickly creating new affordable housing for individuals who have severe housing needs and are at risk of being homeless.
Ensuring Canadians have access to housing, social supports and the health services they need is a major preoccupation of municipal and community leaders. Our government is working with them, and with the provinces and territories, to break down silos, so Canadians can have access to the integrated supports they need.
We are also committed to working with indigenous governments and communities to support access to a comprehensive range of evidence-based, culturally appropriate and trauma-informed services and supports needed to support mental health and substance use issues that individuals are facing, including the opioid overdose crisis, and to advance whole-of-society approaches to these issues.
Through the mental wellness program, Indigenous Services Canada is providing supports for substance use prevention, harm reduction, treatment and aftercare, psychosocial wraparound services and trauma-informed health supports to indigenous communities. In addition, our government has provided targeted supports for innovative community-based projects that address mental health and substance use issues.
The opposition members will stand up and say that the government is not putting resources into treatment, but since 2017, we have invested more than $400 million in over 380 projects through the substance use and addictions program to support community-based organizations.
In 2018, our government committed $150 million over five years to address the opioid crisis through the emergency treatment fund, which also had funds cost-matched by provinces and territories: over $300 million in funding for substance use treatment across Canada.
This shows how much we are putting into treatments and how we should not be taking lessons from a party that wants to revert to Harper-era policies. Tackling the opioid overdose crisis requires a holistic and integrated approach that focuses on mental health and well-being. That is what this government has been doing, so that Canadians can be resilient and healthy now and into the future.
Enough is enough.
We will not be able to bring loved ones home if they are dead from toxic supplies. This is a fight that we must triumph. This is a non-partisan issue, and we will prevail with collaboration with provinces, territories, municipalities and local community organizations, such as, in my riding, the Richmond Addiction Services Society, Turning Point Recovery Society and Pathways Clubhouse.
I want to thank the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions for her continuous championship on this matter, and all the first responders, frontline workers and health care workers for all they do.
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- May/18/23 4:14:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.
Today, we are addressing the health of our nation. After eight years of the Prime Minister, everything feels broken, especially in my home province of British Columbia. Drugs, disorder and violent crime are all on the rise in our neighbourhoods. People are lining up at food banks in record numbers because they cannot afford groceries. Many cannot afford a home, and, worst of all, the opioid crisis is claiming the lives of our sons and daughters. Under the watch of the Prime Minister, there have been 34,000 opioid deaths, and that number is growing by the day. In B.C. alone, overdose deaths are up 330%, by far the worst rate of all the provinces.
The B.C. coroner released a report today, saying that 206 people died of overdose in April. That is 206 people, including one at a safe injection site, who died in one month. The report said that 70% of victims were between the ages of 30 and 59. People in that age bracket should be buying a home, having children and enjoying a successful career. Instead, in the Prime Minister's Canada, they are chasing their next hit. Why is that? It is because all three levels of government, including the federal Liberals, the provincial NDP, this NDP caucus and left-wing mayors and councils, have decriminalized illicit drugs, flooded the streets with so-called safe supply and failed to create the treatment and connection needed for people suffering with addictions to build a drug-free life.
Over 800 people have died in the first four months of this year. If overdose deaths continue at this pace, we could lose up to 2,400 British Columbians this year. Death by overdose cannot be normalized. Instead, we need treatment and recovery. These programs will help those struggling with addictions and we need them now.
The Liberal-NDP coalition is flooding our streets with drugs and supercharging this opioid crisis. One Global News reporter took to the streets of Vancouver to find out where all these safe supply drugs are going. The reporter was able to buy 26 hits of safe supply drugs for only $30, in just 30 minutes, in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Outreach workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside claim that the safe supply hydromorphone tablets can be bought for as little as 25¢ per pill on the streets. It is no wonder that the B.C. coroner reports that seven people per day are dying from drug overdoses in my province.
This heavy amount of free drugs on our streets perpetuates the addiction cycle, prolongs suffering and prevents recovery. It is leading to more deaths, not fewer. How many more Canadians must die before the Prime Minister learns that treatment, not free drugs, saves lives? We need to help get people off drugs so that they can effectively address their addiction issues, enjoy improved health, reconnect with family, get jobs and become contributing members of society.
Let us be clear. The government's radical agenda is fuelling the opioid crisis. It uses the term “safe supply” as though it were a medical term, but, in truth, that phrase is nothing more than marketing jargon used by big pharma. Let us speak the truth. There is nothing safe about safe supply.
The Liberal and NDP drug pushers point to other jurisdictions that have decriminalized hard drugs to justify their radical agenda. For example, they say that Portugal set the gold standard for decriminalization of illicit drugs, but they forgot to mention that Portugal ensured that treatment and recovery services were expanded before they changed the laws. They also omit that health outcomes in Portugal have worsened since that country decreased treatment services.
What is worse is that they are ignoring a made-in-Canada model that is saving lives in Alberta. That province has become a beacon of hope for how lives can be turned around, with professional, caring drug treatment services. I hear members clapping; it is worth clapping for. Overdose deaths are down in that jurisdiction by 30%, while B.C. overdose deaths continue to climb.
We know that merely providing safe supply drugs will never get people out of an addiction cycle. When Conservatives form government, we will follow Alberta's example by building world-class recovery communities and implementing similar services around the country to save lives.
We also need to consider the impact that the so-called safe supply program is having on our youth. On the streets of Vancouver, people living with addictions are selling these cheap drugs to kids. They then use the money to buy stronger, deadlier fentanyl. Impressionable youth are accessing this cheap, plentiful supply of highly addictive drugs as a gateway to harder, more dangerous substances. In plain terms, the safe supply program is a direct threat to the lives of our youth.
A report from the B.C. coroner confirmed that overdose victims are trending younger and that opioid addiction among B.C.'s youth is increasing. Speaking as a mother, I say that we cannot allow the government to ignore the evidence when our teenaged sons and daughters are lying face down on a sidewalk in a zombie-like state. Safe supply drugs are putting youth on the path to hard-core addictions, and this needs to stop. Too many parents have lost children to drug overdoses in this country.
The story of Jack Bodie, from Burnaby, is far too common. Jack was a productive and active 17-year-old boy who was deeply loved by his family. Tragically, Jack snorted half a pill laced with fentanyl. Inhaling the drug slowed down Jack's breathing and heartbeat, and within minutes, his entire system shut down and he passed away. Jack's death sent his family into deep and profound grief. His dad, now a treatment and recovery advocate, maintains that the real tragedy is that there are thousands of families across Canada dealing with the same grief that he faced over the death of a child due to a drug overdose.
Police constable David Steverding works in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and he is a member of the Odd Squad, a group of dedicated police officers who provide drug use prevention education to youth throughout Canada. The constable has worked with hundreds of people living with addiction, and with their families. He said that people often say using drugs is a personal choice and a victimless crime, but that these comments overlook the friends and family members, who, he notes, are often completely helpless, standing by and watching while the drug user spirals downhill.
To the families that have tragically lost sons and daughters to a drug overdose, my message is this: We will make sure their child did not die in vain. We will scrap the dangerous social experiment of safe supply and ensure other kids who struggle with addictions get the treatment they need so they can come home to their families drug-free. The consultants and big pharma that turbocharge opioid marketing will pay for it. We will hold them to account as government policy.
Recovery, treatment and rehabilitation are how we are going to bring home our loved ones. It is how we will turn hurt into hope. It is the common sense of the common people. Hope is possible, and hope is on the way.
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- May/18/23 4:57:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very important question.
Our program for reducing the number of overdoses is based on four pillars: harm reduction, getting drugs off the street, having a safe supply and having a safe treatment program for individuals who have unfortunately fallen dependent on these types of substances. These four pillars need to be working in unison and must be monitored to ensure they are working. We have estimated that the system has saved the lives of 46,000 people, which is something we need to speak to and look at.
We can always strengthen the system, yes, but we need to do it with an evidence-based approach.
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- May/18/23 5:01:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is a really important subject. The director of my constituency office just buried her nephew after his fentanyl overdose on the streets of Montreal. I do not think anyone in this House would disagree that the issue of overdoses and addictions is of great importance.
I would like to ask my hon. colleague if he would elaborate a bit more on how a safe supply is going to save people like the nephew of my constituency director.
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- May/18/23 5:02:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as everyone sitting in this House knows, the toxic drug supply and overdose crisis is devastating communities throughout Canada. We are losing 20 Canadians a day. Prior to COVID, 10 people were fatally overdosing every day in Canada, but now it has increased. Many more of our friends, family members and community members are being hospitalized, calling emergency support for services and grieving lives lost over the past seven years of this crisis.
Unfortunately, we are now debating a misguided motion rooted in outdated ideology that will recycle a discredited, narrow approach rather than create a comprehensive plan to deal with a crisis that is killing people. Even former prime minister Stephen Harper's public safety adviser, Benjamin Perrin, has seen the light and describes the current Conservative approach, which is epitomized by this motion, as “rehashing Conservative, war-on-drugs tropes that have been long since discredited and have been found to be not only ineffective, but costly and deadly.”
There are four pillars recognized internationally that are necessary for a successful substance use strategy: prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction, including a safer supply. In December 2016, our government launched the Canadian drugs and substances strategy, which uses a public health approach to substance use. In doing so, we committed to a comprehensive, collaborative, compassionate and evidence-based drug policy.
Under the Canadian drugs and substances strategy, the Government of Canada has taken evidence-based action to address the toxic drug supply and overdose crisis and has announced over $1 billion in funding. This funding includes $490 million through Health Canada's substance use and addictions program to support community-based treatment, harm reduction, prevention, and stigma reduction activities. In addition, this funding has supported research and surveillance initiatives and strengthened law enforcement capacity to address illegal drug production and trafficking. Going forward, the Canadian drugs and substances strategy will continue to guide our government's drug policy approach, which includes a full continuum of evidence-based options, as well as innovative life-saving strategies to meet people where they are and provide them with the supports they need.
Substance use is an extremely complex issue, and Canadians use drugs for a multitude of reasons. Not everyone who uses drugs is suffering from an addiction. Even when a diagnosis exists, treatment services may not be available or affordable. Moreover, not everyone is always willing, eligible or able to enter treatment. Recovery looks different for everyone. Services to keep people alive and safe and that support better health outcomes should not be limited to just treatment services for people with a formal diagnosis of a substance use disorder, given the crisis is affecting people trying drugs for the first time, people who use drugs occasionally and people who are struggling with an addiction in silence.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this crisis. We need a range of interventions that meet people where they are and reduce the potential harms related to substance use. Harm reduction is a key element of that work and this government's strategy to address the toxic drug supply and overdose crisis.
Evidence has shown us that harm reduction measures, such as supervised consumption sites, in-person or virtual spotting services, safer supply, take-home naloxone, and drug-checking technologies, are supporting people who use drugs by connecting them to health and social services and, most importantly, are keeping them alive. For example, in one of the hardest hit provinces, evidence in British Columbia has shown that the combined effect of expanded access to take-home naloxone programs, supervised consumption sites and opioid agonist treatment has been crucial to averting overdose deaths in the province. In addition, between 2015 and 2021, nearly 125,000 naloxone kits were used to reverse an overdose in B.C.
In 2016, there were only two supervised consumption sites in Canada, both in Vancouver. Since then, the number of federally approved supervised consumption sites offering services has grown to as high as 40, and they are available in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. This is because we are investing in what works and where the evidence is. At these sites, more than 46,000 overdoses have been reversed, and there have been over four million visits. That is a point worth repeating.
The safe consumption sites the Conservative leader wants to shut down have reversed more than 46,000 overdoses since 2017. When we say that harm reduction meets people where they are, this is what we mean. These harm reduction services are saving lives every day. Spotting services support someone who is using drugs either in person or remotely by phone, video chat or an app, and they provide help in case an overdose occurs.
During the first 14 months of operations, the virtual national overdose response service monitored over 2,000 substance use events and responded to over 50 adverse events. These events required an emergency response and no fatalities were reported.
Although the Conservative opposition will tell us otherwise, harm reduction efforts are not antithetical to treatment. They are part of the continuum of care. They meet people where they are, and they can connect people with a spectrum of health and social supports.
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