SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24

Hon. Ya'ara Saks (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)

May/29/24 11:47:13 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the Minister of Indigenous Services for her compassion. It is so important for us to remember what it means to be Canadian right now. We hold each other together, and we are holding each other through many challenging things right now, including the tragic lives lost through the overdose crisis. This is where we step up and throw everything we have got at it. What is amazing about harm reduction and needle exchange is that it is not new. It has been around as an evidence-based, proven way to meet people where they are at, to open the door for them to come inside and get help. When people offer an extended hand and say to come on inside and ask what someone needs, what is the first thing someone needs? They need a clean needle. Let us talk about why they are using that needle. Let us talk about how we get them to a healthier place. Harm reduction is nothing new. On the other side of the bench, they stigmatize. They talk about this in terms of their loved ones being criminals, that they should go back to dark corners and hide what they are struggling with, hide their struggle with substance use and the disease of addiction. We know that needle exchanges and safe consumption sites bring people into health care. They walk into that place. We are not just talking about saving lives. We are talking about getting them the health services they need with the compassion and care that they deserve.

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Hon. Patty Hajdu

May/29/24 11:49:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, contraceptives are not universally accessible, despite being a mainstay of reproductive choice. I cannot imagine my life if I had not been able to choose when I would have children, and yet Conservative members of Parliament have voted against this measure, as well as many of them being greenlit by anti-choice organizations. Women are depending on the Canadian government to protect their freedom. How will this coverage help?

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Hon. Mark Holland

May/29/24 11:49:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my friend and colleague for her advocacy in this space, both in her public and private life. The truth is that it is very frustrating, beyond frustrating, to watch some of the members across the way who hold three positions simultaneously. First, they are against choice. They believe that a woman should not have autonomy over her own body and make a choice with respect to abortion. Second, they are voting against women being able to have access to the contraceptive medicine they need to be able to make their own choice about their body and when they would start a family. Third, they will not speak openly or honestly about sex or sexual education. If one is against all three of those things, then, plainly stated, one is against a woman's sexual freedom or health generally. We know that misinformation and stigma is disastrous. We also know that for too many women who do not have the means, they are forced into a circumstance, to use contraceptives that are available and are cheaper, but less effective. To give a very clear example, oral contraceptives have a failure rate of 9%. We know that an IUD has a failure rate of 0.2% but so many women cannot make the choice to have an IUD because it is too expensive, which means that they lose, in many instances, control over when they start their family. That is fundamentally about freedom. In my view, it is fundamentally wrong. I hope that the action we are taking here is seen as complementary to our action generally, to make sure that women have control over their sexual health and their reproductive freedom.

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Hon. Patty Hajdu

May/29/24 11:51:45 p.m.
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Madam Chair, my last question would be for the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. I would like to hear her thoughts about the stigmatization of people who use substances other than alcohol, yet the attitude of many Conservative members around further liberalization of alcohol use—

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The Deputy Chair

May/29/24 11:52:09 p.m.
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We are out of time but I will allow the hon. minister to respond briefly.

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Hon. Ya'ara Saks

May/29/24 11:52:13 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we know that stigma will put people back into the dark shadows, using alone and dying alone, which is why we need to do everything we can to break stigma, open doors and bring them into the light.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

May/29/24 11:52:37 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we know that Health Canada is introducing major regulatory changes under an outdated and broken self-care framework. This has an impact on 54,000 jobs in a $5.5-billion industry. The Canadian Health Food Association has asked for a simple meeting with the Minister of Health, and he refuses to meet with them. Can he explain to them why?

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Hon. Mark Holland (Minister of Health, Lib.)

May/29/24 11:53:02 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I meet with all kinds of organizations. In terms of natural health products, it is exceptionally important to make sure that we protect Canadians and that we protect the integrity of the Canadian brand, which is exactly what we are doing with natural health products.

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Mr. Gord Johns

May/29/24 11:53:19 p.m.
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Madam Chair, no one is disputing that, but it is important that the minister sit down and meet with these leaders. It has a huge impact on these employees, their customers and these business owners. Has the Minister of Health considered that people with disabilities need to undergo two rigorous application processes to access disability benefits from both the provincial government and the federal government? Why can the federal government not accept the provincial government's applicants for disability benefits?

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Hon. Mark Holland

May/29/24 11:53:50 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I hope to talk to the hon. member on the first order, about natural health products, because the bill that was voted on today would remove our ability to recall contaminated products, such as products contaminated with fibreglass or E. coli or feces. That is extremely concerning, and hopefully the member will be reconsidering that position as the bill moves to committee. In terms of the other item, I would be happy to follow up with the member.

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Mr. Gord Johns

May/29/24 11:54:19 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we can follow up right now. For many applicants for the disability tax credit, the application process takes a significant mental and physical load. They often require visits to doctors and government offices, which are rejected after all that work. This is having a huge impact on physicians at a time when we are having a doctor shortage. Does the minister believe that the government has a responsibility to make the application process as easy as possible, and could this mean sharing information with provincial governments to avoid this overlap?

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Hon. Mark Holland

May/29/24 11:54:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, again, I will come back to this, because it is not my ministry that is responsible for that application process; it resides elsewhere. Having said that, yes, writ large across government, we want to make processes easier and more streamlined and reduce administrative burden. I would be happy to work with the member, not just on this issue, which is not within my purview, but on all issues as it relates to administrative burden.

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Mr. Gord Johns

May/29/24 11:55:15 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions has said that the government is “meeting the moment” when it comes to the toxic drug crisis. However, over 42,000 Canadians have died. I cannot see that as meeting the moment. Honestly, I see that the government still does not have a plan and does not have a timeline on how it is going to tackle this issue. How many more people need to die before the Liberals declare a public health emergency? I will say this right now: The stigma starts right here. In responding to the toxic drug crisis, the government has spent less than 1% of what it spent in responding to COVID-19. Why?

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Hon. Ya'ara Saks (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)

May/29/24 11:55:57 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank the member for his compassionate, consistent and relentless advocacy on what is a public health crisis. We have put over a billion dollars into addressing the overdose crisis in this country. We continue to invest through SUAP, through the emergency treatment fund in budget 2024, and also through $200 billion in bilateral agreements, of which over 30%, on average, across provinces and territories is going to mental health and substance use. We need to work with the health systems in the jurisdictions, because this is not a quick fix; it is a long game.

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Mr. Gord Johns

May/29/24 11:56:46 p.m.
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Madam Chair, that is not “meeting the moment”. That is not responding to a health emergency. We look to Portugal on how it responded to a health emergency, and it treated it as that. The federal government controls to whom and how supervised consumption services are provided. These services remain unavailable in most locations across the country, especially in more rural and remote locations. When will this government get rid of the red tape and ensure these services are available and funded nationally?

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Hon. Ya'ara Saks

May/29/24 11:57:14 p.m.
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Madam Chair, can we do more? Yes, we can always do more, which is why we are making the investments we are making at this time. However, let me be clear that the appropriate mechanism to address the ongoing overdose crisis is not the Emergencies Act. We cannot address it that way. It is pervasive. It requires longer-term sustained supports. That is not the right mechanism for saving lives.

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Mr. Gord Johns

May/29/24 11:57:45 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the member does not need to declare an emergency, then; she needs to act like it is an emergency. That is what we are looking for. That is what the moms and families who have lost loved ones are looking for, or those who are struggling and the families that are impacted. We know that across the country, indigenous peoples, first nations, Inuit and Métis communities feel like they are being left out of the government's response to the toxic drug crisis. They are seeing their communities suffer from loss and increased crime. In fact, last week, Alberta announced that first nations and Métis people represent 20% of all apparent unintended opioid deaths despite representing only 3.4% of the population. Can the minister tell this House how Health Canada is working with Indigenous Services Canada and indigenous leadership across the country to take a health care-focused approach to the toxic drug crisis? Is the minister willing to intervene if Conservative premiers like Danielle Smith and Scott Moe let preventable deaths from toxic drug poisoning continue at this rate?

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Hon. Ya'ara Saks

May/29/24 11:58:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am going to push back a bit here, because the renewed CDSS is our plan for addressing the crisis. In it, we talk about a holistic and interdepartmental approach, which means I will be working with my colleagues the Minister of Indigenous Services and the housing minister. We know that we need to pull all the threads together to address this crisis. There is no one-stop fix for this. The Conservatives would like to think it is treatment and treatment only, and forced treatment at that. However, the truth is that we need many tools in the tool box to address this, and it will take time because the drug crisis is not new. We need sustained, long-term strategies, which is exactly what the CDSS is about. It is why we're investing $150 million in an emergency treatment fund right now and why the SUAP, which has funded over 380 projects in communities across this country, will continue to do this work.

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Mr. Gord Johns

May/29/24 11:59:57 p.m.
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Madam Chair, when COVID-19 arrived in this country, we put out a plan to get vaccines to people. We moved and mobilized quickly. We worked through jurisdictional overlap overnight to literally save lives. However, the government is not doing that when it comes to this crisis because of stigma. Is the minister aware that over 20 years of peer-reviewed research shows that safe consumption sites save lives and increase access to treatment? We heard from the deputy commissioner of the RCMP that they want more safe consumption sites, not fewer. Is the minister aware that with the surge of overdose deaths in Lethbridge, Alberta, since the closure of its safe consumption site, they have tripled? It has triple the death rate of British Columbia per capita. In Regina, where we do not have a safe consumption site, it is double that of Saskatoon. Also, HIV rates are impacted when we do not have harm reduction. Saskatchewan has 19 HIV cases per 100,000. To compare that to the second-most, it is Alberta, at 4.2. It is out of control. Will the minister intervene?

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Hon. Ya'ara Saks

May/30/24 12:01:13 a.m.
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Madam Chair, I am the last person who has to be convinced that safe consumption sites are important. Since 2017, with 41 safe consumption sites across this country, we have reversed 55 overdose deaths. We have seen over 4.6 million visits, and we have had over 417,000 referrals to treatment. We know they matter. That is why we work with communities to get them in place. However, health service delivery is in provincial jurisdiction. We can use a hammer and a nail, or we can work collaboratively to move all boats along and have the tide rise. We have to work with our provincial partners. We are not all on the same page on this. I agree with him that the numbers in Alberta are tragic, but at the same time, we need to work together as much as we can because the bottom line is that we want to save lives. This is our goal. Our priority is a comprehensive strategy of prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement.

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