SoVote

Mr. Philip Lawrence (Northumberland—Peterborough South, CPC)

Feb/8/22 9:41:20 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge. I am sure he is going to do a great job, and I am looking forward to his discussion. I might just say that I respect tremendously the member who was just speaking, but I did not respect necessarily the tone of that speech. I would love to see us work together collaboratively. There can be no greater victory for our 44th Parliament as a team than for us to work to have a prolonged and permanent solution to the opioid crisis. I would hope that all members would have that tone of consolidation and collaboration, and not retell a past of seven years ago. I rise today on a very serious topic. This opioid crisis is endemic. It is ravaging our communities. My community, which is in rural Canada, is just as exposed as every other community. This is one of the largest public health crises of our time. Canada-wide, there are 17 deaths daily due to the opioid epidemic. There were 27,604 people hospitalized with opioid-related poisoning between January 2016 and 2021. In 2020 alone, there were 5,240 cases. There is actually a direct connection between the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis. We have seen a huge increase in the use of fentanyl. Analysis was done of major Canadian cities, including Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver. After the lockdown was put in place, just months after the lockdown, the use of fentanyl had gone up by two and even three times. People are hurting. People are in pain. They do not want to hear partisan bickering. That is why I am here, and that is why I am speaking today. As I say, it hits right at home. In my riding of Northumberland—Peterborough South, we are covered by the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit. There have been 265 hospitalizations of confirmed opioid overdoses and nine more in January alone. However, this does not tell the story. Numbers just do not carry it. There are literally thousands of families across this community who have been ruined. They are promising young people. They are persons who could have grown up and cured cancer and those who could have spoken eloquently in this very House, on whichever side of the aisle. Their lives are ruined, sometimes beyond repair, by these terrible substances. There is nothing more that we could do as the 44th Parliament that would be more important than providing a lifetime cure. I would like to talk about a couple of individuals in my riding who have been outspoken on the front. Chief Paul VandeGraaf, a police chief in Cobourg, has been working and fighting the opioid epidemic every single day. He has talked about the fact that we need to not necessarily have police at the front line of this epidemic, that we need to have therapists, doctors and community leaders on this. Another individual I would like to talk about whom I respect deeply is Chief Laurie Carr of the Hiawatha First Nation. She has made it a community effort to fight the opioid epidemic. She has gotten together therapists and knowledge keepers and has had community meetings where they fight this crisis, person by person by person, trying to get as many people as possible off of these horrible substances. Her work is being undermined, as the member from Peterborough said, because the nearest treatment centre that will support indigenous peoples is six hours away. Anyone who has been touched by substance abuse in their life knows that when someone is willing to get treatment, they need it right now. Too many people are left out. They want help. They want to get better. They want their families. They cannot get help because they do not have the resources they need. Quite frankly, we need them now. That is why I am so proud to rise on this issue. I beg every member in here to make this a top priority. Let us have a prolonged, lasting solution to this horrible, terrible crisis.

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Context: House Hansard - 26 - Feb/8/22

Mr. Philip Lawrence

Feb/8/22 9:47:02 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, I absolutely agree with the hon. member's comments. I would even widen the audience or the interactions we need to have. We need people who have battled through addiction and even people who are engaged in the battle against addiction. There should be nothing about people without them. We need to bring all people to the table. We cannot wait. We need action. This crisis is now decades old. It is decades in the making. We need for a family who is dealing with someone who has been addicted to know where to go and when to go get help. We need to get help for all Canadians.

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Context: House Hansard - 26 - Feb/8/22

Mr. Philip Lawrence

Feb/8/22 9:49:03 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I am willing to discuss. All options are on the table. As the member said, people are dying, so all options are on the table. I will say that ultimately my dream would be to have a Canada where no one is using these substances and we are not just managing the crisis but actually overcoming it. I am open. Let us have discussions. Let us work it out. I always enjoy the member's collaborative approach.

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Context: House Hansard - 26 - Feb/8/22

Mr. Philip Lawrence

Feb/8/22 9:50:30 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it is astonishing. I will say that throughout this pandemic that the government does not appear to have even contemplated increasing health transfers. One of the pressures on our system has been, of course, COVID-19, but we also are, in many cases, lacking the sufficient ICU beds and hospital beds that we need. Like I said, we are always open to collaboration and discussion.

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