44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 18, 2023 10:00AM
- May/18/23 3:00:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Conservatives know that a healthy recovery is the answer to the captivity of addiction. There are 34,000 Canadians who have died from opioids from 2016 to 2022 alone.
Today, we are told Ottawa plans to join a B.C. class action accusing its favourite $100-million consultant McKinsey, which turbocharged the opioid sales, of reckless opioid marketing. This is a copycat of what Conservatives called for on March 14.
Why did it take the Liberal government two years after the U.S. settlement to sue McKinsey and big pharma?
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- May/18/23 4:14:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan.
Today, we are addressing the health of our nation. After eight years of the Prime Minister, everything feels broken, especially in my home province of British Columbia. Drugs, disorder and violent crime are all on the rise in our neighbourhoods. People are lining up at food banks in record numbers because they cannot afford groceries. Many cannot afford a home, and, worst of all, the opioid crisis is claiming the lives of our sons and daughters. Under the watch of the Prime Minister, there have been 34,000 opioid deaths, and that number is growing by the day. In B.C. alone, overdose deaths are up 330%, by far the worst rate of all the provinces.
The B.C. coroner released a report today, saying that 206 people died of overdose in April. That is 206 people, including one at a safe injection site, who died in one month. The report said that 70% of victims were between the ages of 30 and 59. People in that age bracket should be buying a home, having children and enjoying a successful career. Instead, in the Prime Minister's Canada, they are chasing their next hit. Why is that? It is because all three levels of government, including the federal Liberals, the provincial NDP, this NDP caucus and left-wing mayors and councils, have decriminalized illicit drugs, flooded the streets with so-called safe supply and failed to create the treatment and connection needed for people suffering with addictions to build a drug-free life.
Over 800 people have died in the first four months of this year. If overdose deaths continue at this pace, we could lose up to 2,400 British Columbians this year. Death by overdose cannot be normalized. Instead, we need treatment and recovery. These programs will help those struggling with addictions and we need them now.
The Liberal-NDP coalition is flooding our streets with drugs and supercharging this opioid crisis. One Global News reporter took to the streets of Vancouver to find out where all these safe supply drugs are going. The reporter was able to buy 26 hits of safe supply drugs for only $30, in just 30 minutes, in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Outreach workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside claim that the safe supply hydromorphone tablets can be bought for as little as 25¢ per pill on the streets. It is no wonder that the B.C. coroner reports that seven people per day are dying from drug overdoses in my province.
This heavy amount of free drugs on our streets perpetuates the addiction cycle, prolongs suffering and prevents recovery. It is leading to more deaths, not fewer. How many more Canadians must die before the Prime Minister learns that treatment, not free drugs, saves lives? We need to help get people off drugs so that they can effectively address their addiction issues, enjoy improved health, reconnect with family, get jobs and become contributing members of society.
Let us be clear. The government's radical agenda is fuelling the opioid crisis. It uses the term “safe supply” as though it were a medical term, but, in truth, that phrase is nothing more than marketing jargon used by big pharma. Let us speak the truth. There is nothing safe about safe supply.
The Liberal and NDP drug pushers point to other jurisdictions that have decriminalized hard drugs to justify their radical agenda. For example, they say that Portugal set the gold standard for decriminalization of illicit drugs, but they forgot to mention that Portugal ensured that treatment and recovery services were expanded before they changed the laws. They also omit that health outcomes in Portugal have worsened since that country decreased treatment services.
What is worse is that they are ignoring a made-in-Canada model that is saving lives in Alberta. That province has become a beacon of hope for how lives can be turned around, with professional, caring drug treatment services. I hear members clapping; it is worth clapping for. Overdose deaths are down in that jurisdiction by 30%, while B.C. overdose deaths continue to climb.
We know that merely providing safe supply drugs will never get people out of an addiction cycle. When Conservatives form government, we will follow Alberta's example by building world-class recovery communities and implementing similar services around the country to save lives.
We also need to consider the impact that the so-called safe supply program is having on our youth. On the streets of Vancouver, people living with addictions are selling these cheap drugs to kids. They then use the money to buy stronger, deadlier fentanyl. Impressionable youth are accessing this cheap, plentiful supply of highly addictive drugs as a gateway to harder, more dangerous substances. In plain terms, the safe supply program is a direct threat to the lives of our youth.
A report from the B.C. coroner confirmed that overdose victims are trending younger and that opioid addiction among B.C.'s youth is increasing. Speaking as a mother, I say that we cannot allow the government to ignore the evidence when our teenaged sons and daughters are lying face down on a sidewalk in a zombie-like state. Safe supply drugs are putting youth on the path to hard-core addictions, and this needs to stop. Too many parents have lost children to drug overdoses in this country.
The story of Jack Bodie, from Burnaby, is far too common. Jack was a productive and active 17-year-old boy who was deeply loved by his family. Tragically, Jack snorted half a pill laced with fentanyl. Inhaling the drug slowed down Jack's breathing and heartbeat, and within minutes, his entire system shut down and he passed away. Jack's death sent his family into deep and profound grief. His dad, now a treatment and recovery advocate, maintains that the real tragedy is that there are thousands of families across Canada dealing with the same grief that he faced over the death of a child due to a drug overdose.
Police constable David Steverding works in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and he is a member of the Odd Squad, a group of dedicated police officers who provide drug use prevention education to youth throughout Canada. The constable has worked with hundreds of people living with addiction, and with their families. He said that people often say using drugs is a personal choice and a victimless crime, but that these comments overlook the friends and family members, who, he notes, are often completely helpless, standing by and watching while the drug user spirals downhill.
To the families that have tragically lost sons and daughters to a drug overdose, my message is this: We will make sure their child did not die in vain. We will scrap the dangerous social experiment of safe supply and ensure other kids who struggle with addictions get the treatment they need so they can come home to their families drug-free. The consultants and big pharma that turbocharge opioid marketing will pay for it. We will hold them to account as government policy.
Recovery, treatment and rehabilitation are how we are going to bring home our loved ones. It is how we will turn hurt into hope. It is the common sense of the common people. Hope is possible, and hope is on the way.
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- May/18/23 4:23:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, shame on that member for what he just stated. There was nothing in what I said that said anything about prisons. That is ridiculous. We are talking about treatment, recovery and support for those who are suffering from addictions. Shame on him.
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- May/18/23 4:24:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member is a medical doctor, so he is always very knowledgeable on these subjects.
Of course I do not agree with this. The easier the access, the harder it is to deal with the problems that come from that easy access. These are young people whose brains are still developing. A brain is not fully developed until one is in their mid-20s. We know that, and we know the effects of drugs. Even so-called softer drugs, like marijuana, can lead to psychosis and paranoia and can unmask schizophrenia. Now, we are talking about drugs where a 17-year-old can snort half a pill and die. It is irresponsible and unreasonable to spend taxpayers' dollars to give young people access, such as at a vending machine, to hard drugs. It is unforgivable, actually.
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- May/18/23 4:26:30 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have spent a fair amount of time in this space. I was the president of Little House, which is a recovery house in British Columbia, so I have some knowledge on the issue. A continuum of care, of course, has to be part of recovery, support and treatment. However, unlimited safe supply, where people receiving that safe supply are then selling it to kids cheaper and cheaper in order to then use that money for their own harder drugs, is a tragedy. People who run recovery houses like Last Door Recovery Society in New Westminster are on record saying that 100% of the people they deal with who have received safe supply drugs have never used all of the drugs they have received. They are selling them.
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