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House Hansard - 62

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2022 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22
Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)
  • May/2/22 11:44:02 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-8 
Madam Speaker, it is a huge honour to rise tonight to speak to the fall economic update. Today, the families and friends of 20 Canadians will get the life-changing news that their loved one has died because of a toxic drug poisoning. Tomorrow, the families and friends of another 20 Canadians will get the same news, and again the next day and the next day. The expert task force on substance use established by Health Canada accurately described what we are facing when it said: The war on drugs has led to what ends up looking like a war on people who use drugs. People are dying every day, and the situation in Canada, already particularly deadly, is getting worse, not better. Canada has the fastest growing rate of overdose mortality in the world. This is from the government's own expert task force. The pandemic has accelerated the toxic drug supply crisis and there is no end in sight. The Public Health Agency of Canada, in its most recent modelling, predicted that opioid-related deaths will remain high until June and may even increase, yet the government has refused to take the urgent actions needed to stop the losses, including making investments, at the scale that this crisis requires, in addressing the root causes of problematic substance use, education and prevention, harm reduction and safer supply, and treatment on demand and recovery services. The fall economic update failed to even acknowledge the public health emergency that has been devastating communities for years, and the 2022 budget added a mere $100 million over three years to be spread across the country. That is 10 provinces and three territories. The stigma is not just in policy, nor just in the laws in this country. It is in the amount of money the government spends to tackle this crisis. The toxic drug supply crisis, which has arisen as a direct result of the failed war on drugs, is not just costing lives; it is costing significant amounts of money to all levels of government. Members have heard me say repeatedly in the House that this is a health and human rights issue, but this is also an economic issue. The expert task force wrote about the financial burden of the criminalized approach to drugs on the health and criminal justice system. Its report said: Criminalization leads to higher drug-related health costs because it keeps people who use drugs away from prevention and early treatment health services due to fear of being arrested, labelled, or outed. “Criminalization drives people underground and means that people are less likely to seek assistance, or have difficulties if they try to obtain assistance.” Because criminalization pushes people who use drugs to rely on an illegal, often contaminated drug supply, it is also responsible for high hospitalization costs. “23,240 opioid-related and 10,518 stimulant-related poisoning hospitalizations occurred from January 2016 to September 2020 in Canada (excluding Quebec).” In its second report, the expert task force put it bluntly, saying, “Current policies are currently costing Canada huge amounts. In—”
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