During the debate on the Speech from the Throne:
-NDP MP Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) said, “…the biggest issue facing my community right now has to be the opioid crisis, hands down… Unfortunately, there was only a single reference to the opioids crisis. "It is really unconscionable, given the public health crisis we are facing, especially in communities like mine, that only a passing reference was made…”
-Later, MacGregor also asked, “…Why has the Liberal government refused to call the opioid crisis a national health emergency? Why is it not heeding calls of organizations like the chiefs of police to decriminalize this? Why is it not providing the federal resources that so many communities across the country need to finally get a handle on this crisis?”
-When NDP MP Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay) asked whether the hundreds of thousands of people being poisoned by fentanyl would benefit from a safe supply and decriminalization, Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan said, “…We must work together. This does not take one simple fix. It is a very complex problem. Our government has taken numerous actions, and we must work together to do more.”
-Conservative MP Tracy Gray (Kelowna—Lake Country) remarked, “…First responders are dealing with overdoses continually, every day, and the government said that it will “continue to address the opioid epidemic tearing through communities”. What does this mean? There are no actions or policy ideas” When asked for her own views on declaring a public health emergency and decriminalizing possession for small amount, Gray did not respond directly but stated “…A lot of what I hear in my community is that the focus is solely on harm reduction. This is absolutely a part of dealing with the situation, but there are so many other ways that we could be dealing with this. We could do it through recovery and treatment facilities, for example, but this is not being focused on at all. It was actually in the last Conservative election platform.”
-Conservative MP Marc Dalton Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge) asked, “How do the member and New Democrats feel about the Liberal government placing more emphasis on recovery and treatment than primarily on safe injection sites?” NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver-Mount Pleasant) responded by saying “…The federal government has refused to act on this in a comprehensive way. No one ever suggested harm reduction and decriminalizing are silver bullets; we need all of those."
-Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches—East York) said, “… we have listened to public health experts to save lives in this pandemic and need to continue to heed their advice to address the opioid epidemic. That work should include a federal task force to reset our national drug strategy, which has been called for by police chiefs, and action toward decriminalization and safer supply projects…Every serious person who has looked at this issue has said the current drug prohibition framework is killing people and that we need drug policy reform to save lives. I hope we have a serious conversation about this and put the politics aside to save lives going forward in the same way we have put politics aside in the course of this pandemic…”
-NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay) stated, “…In the midst of the pandemic, we are dealing with the other great pandemic: the opioid crisis. It has been a disaster…We have to be ready to work together to get through this, but that means the Liberal government has to move on from positive words. They think if they say positive words, they get positive results, but that is not how it works. Positive words mean action. Action means we have to get the money out now to address the opioid and homelessness crisis…”
-Green Party MP Paul Manly (Nanaimo—Ladysmith) said, “…We have an opioid crisis in this country. Thousands of people have died from drug poisonings. Addiction is a health and social issue. Our public health officers are telling us to follow evidence-based solutions to this crisis. We need to listen…”
