44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 8, 2024 02:00PM
- May/8/24 3:00:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is shameful that the Leader of the Opposition uses tragedies to exploit people's fears and fundraise for the Conservatives.
The reality is that he has his facts wrong. No one in this country, apart from the Conservative leader, is talking about legalizing hard drugs. We are focused on science, compassion and a public health approach. That is what people need: housing, services and help.
We are making that happen.
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- May/8/24 3:01:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is actually the Prime Minister's government that is talking about legalizing drugs. It did it already. It legalized hard drugs in British Columbia, and the NDP in that province pulled back just before the provincial election.
The Prime Minister now has in his possession an application from the City of Toronto to repeat the same nightmare in that city. The minister responsible says the application is “dormant”. It is not dead; it is dormant. Dormant means asleep.
Is that not really the Prime Minister's plan: to wake it up after the election so he can impose the same thing on Toronto as he did in B.C.?
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- May/8/24 3:01:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is shameful to hear the Leader of the Opposition misleading the House and misleading Canadians for his own fundraising political gain. There is nobody in this country talking about legalizing hard drugs, with the possible exception of members of the Conservative Party themselves.
The government's approach is focused on a public health approach grounded in science, compassion and community safety. We are talking about wraparound services like housing, mental health treatment and harm reduction that are helping people around the country, and we will continue to work with provinces and jurisdictions in their approach.
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- May/8/24 3:02:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is playing word games again. He pretends there is a difference between legalization and decriminalization. It is basically the same thing, but we will use his word. He brought in decriminalization in British Columbia, which led to a 380% increase in overdose deaths. There were 2,500 deaths last year, the worst death count in any province's history.
Will the Prime Minister admit that his decriminalization in B.C. was a deadly disaster, or will he admit that he plans to do it again right across the country, everywhere, after the next election?
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- May/8/24 3:03:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, earlier, the Leader of the Opposition was suggesting that I do my homework. One would think that on an issue that the Leader of the Opposition is making so much fundraising money off of, he would have actually done his work and would have realized there is a difference between legalization and decriminalization. That is one that really matters.
We, yes, responded to a request for a pilot project by British Columbia to continue to try new approaches in solving this toxic drug overdose epidemic. We will continue to work with British Columbia, as we have, as they choose to make adjustments to their pilot project because we know saving lives and keeping communities safe is the most important thing.
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- May/8/24 3:03:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I just asked now, four times, whether the Prime Minister plans to replicate, in Montreal, in Toronto or anywhere else, the radical experiment that he has had to backpedal on in British Columbia. He will not answer the question. He has a request from the Montreal mayor, the Toronto City Hall, and we do not know what other municipalities.
Either (a) the Prime Minister believes the experiment was a disaster, or (b) he plans to repeat it. Which is it?
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- May/8/24 3:04:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have answered this question many times by saying that the only way we move forward on any proposals across this country, around decriminalization or other methods to fight toxic drug overdoses, is when provinces step up and actually ask for them. Failing that, we will not be moving forward on any modifications. However, there are provinces that are choosing to reduce their harm reduction measures.
We will continue to increase harm reduction and public health responses to overdoses and to safe supply issues right across the country.
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- May/8/24 3:05:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us touch briefly on extremism. Last week, a party leader was expelled from the House, partly for using the word “extremist” without apologizing. Today, the Prime Minister is congratulating his friend for saying exactly the same word to guests in committee.
Is this a double standard or will he consider expelling his friend from the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie?
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- May/8/24 3:06:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, I expected the member to apologize and withdraw his comments, and that is exactly what he did.
At the same time, we will continue to defend the French fact across Canada and around the world through our participation in the Francophonie, based on our conviction that not only must we protect our two official languages across the country, but also be there to invest in protecting French in Quebec. We are the first government to do so, and we will continue to be there to protect French across the country.
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- May/8/24 3:06:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I just heard that we need to protect both official languages. Where does English need protecting?
This summer in Montreal there is going to be the equivalent of a global conference of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie that will be chaired by his friend, who, by his own actions, is embarrassing us on the world stage.
I think I get it: The Liberals are trying to have everyone believe that French is just fine in Quebec and there is no need to do anything to make Canada's anglophones happy.
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- May/8/24 3:07:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, we are the first federal government to recognize that we have a special responsibility to protect French in Quebec and to contribute to that protection. No other government has done that before. It is because we recognize that more needs to be done to protect French. Unlike the Bloc Québécois, we are not going to focus on what needs to be done in Quebec. We are going to keep protecting French in the entire country. We are going to do so in Acadia, in Ontario, in Manitoba, in the Far North, across the country—
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- May/8/24 3:08:04 p.m.
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The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- May/8/24 3:08:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, not only is the Prime Minister refusing to rule out future decriminalization across the country, which has just failed in B.C., but also he has now just announced that he plans to spend even more tax dollars on narcotic opioids. According to the Vancouver chief of police, 50% of the recovered hydromorphone originated with government programs handing it out as a so-called safe supply. That program has led to a 166% increase in drug deaths across the country since it was brought in.
Why will the Prime Minister not accept my common-sense plan to stop giving out deadly drugs and to start giving out treatment?
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- May/8/24 3:08:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition proposes to return to the failed Harper-era approaches on opioids that Harper's former adviser Benjamin Perrin called obsolete and “immoral”.
Over the past number of years, we have invested in a compassionate, science-based, evidence-grounded approach that includes harm reduction through a public health lens. It also includes investments in housing, in mental health supports, in frontline workers, and in addiction treatment and recovery programs. These are the things that move us forward.
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- May/8/24 3:09:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when we were in government there were 60% fewer overdose deaths. This problem accelerated after the Prime Minister brought in these radical programs, which are not done anywhere else, to give corrupt pharmaceutical companies money to hand out more drugs.
David McEvoy, an addiction outreach worker right here in Ottawa, said that he witnessed the so-called safe supply clients “diverting their taxpayer-funded drugs to the black market”, and that they were given an “insane” quantity of drugs.
Will the Prime Minister stop giving out insane quantities of heroin-grade opioids and start bringing treatment so we can bring our loved ones home drug free?
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- May/8/24 3:10:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know that any Canadian would think that adding more ideology to our approach to public health in dealing with the opioid epidemic is a solution, yet that is the only thing the Conservative Party seems to offer.
We will continue to be grounded in a compassionate, science-based approach that works with local partners and that attempts to provide the kinds of wraparound services in housing, in health care, in addiction treatment and recovery or in culturally appropriate services to those who need them. We will continue to be there to help heal people, not to imprison them.
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- May/8/24 3:10:58 p.m.
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The Liberals are there to help kill people right now. That is exactly what they are doing.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- May/8/24 3:11:11 p.m.
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The Speaker will come back to this issue. I will allow the hon. member to continue his question.
The hon. Leader of the Opposition.
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- May/8/24 3:11:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, not only is the Prime Minister's policy killing people, but he is by far the most radical ideologue who has ever occupied that job.
Always with these radical policies come profiteering by the companies making the money off of the opioids that are funded by Canadian taxpayers. It is indeed sick.
Will the Prime Minister agree to release all of the contracts for those pharmaceutical companies?
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- May/8/24 3:12:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are facing, right across the country, a toxic drug and opioid epidemic that is taking lives left, right and centre, that is hurting communities and that is hurting family members who are losing loved ones at an alarming rate, and that is something we need to respond to.
We have continued to work, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, in thoughtful ways to try to do everything possible to keep communities safe, to keep families from suffering these further losses and to support people who are struggling with addiction. We will continue to be grounded in evidence and support.
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