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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 320

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 29, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Kerry-Lynne Findlay
  • May/29/24 8:06:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, five nurses on one shift were so sick that they had to be sent to emergency because of exposure to fentanyl smoke. Does the minister find this acceptable?
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Hon. Ya'ara Saks
  • May/29/24 9:27:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as mentioned before, over $700 million has been allocated to the Province of Ontario for mental health and substance use in the coming years. That being said, in the 2024 budget, the ETF, the emergency transfer fund, offers $150 million over three years to communities to seek additional assistance.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
Mr. Mike Morrice
  • May/29/24 11:16:42 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I appreciate the minister for meeting with representatives from MS Canada. It is best that he hear from them directly rather than from me, but it also good to know that there are parliamentarians on all sides who are keen to see the investment made potentially, for example, in the next fall economic statement. I would like to turn to a question for the Minister of Mental Health. There are two local mental health service providers in my community, Thresholds and the CMHA Waterloo Wellington, which have been struggling for months to secure funding for a mental health emergency room to provide appropriate care for people in crisis and to alleviate the strain on overcrowded emergency rooms. There has not been government funding available, so they have had to open this summer using their own budgets, and they have about three months' worth of staffing support available to demonstrate how critical the support is. Of course the provincial government also needs to step up. Given the urgency and the critical need for this kind of facility, I would like to hear what the minister believes are the immediate actions the federal government could take to support these kinds of local initiatives and ensure that people in crisis have access to the care they need without overburdening the emergency rooms.
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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
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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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/29/24
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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Context: House Hansard - 320 - May/30/24
Mr. Gord Johns
  • May/30/24 12:07:05 a.m.
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Madam Chair, we know that housing is integral in supporting people with substance use disorder. The government announced $250 million for emergency funding in the budget. That could create tiny homes in communities like Port Alberni and we could trust the province to support wraparound supports and the city to provide land. How quickly can the government get that money out the door? It is an urgent situation, an emergency.
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