Mental Health and Addictions  Madam Speaker, it never ceases to amaze me how much misinformation members on the other side can present on this floor and to Canadians. B.C. requested a pilot program. The pilot program continues, and we continue to work with the province in order to save lives. I have also been unequivocally clear, having worked with the premier and with Toronto Public Health, to reject their proposal.

Mental Health and Addictions  Madam Speaker, today we released Canada's first national suicide prevention action plan. My heart goes out to the many families and friends who have lost a loved one to suicide, with the ripples of pain that are felt throughout communities. The new national suicide prevention action plan brings together all orders of government and indigenous partners toward better collaboration on suicide prevention.

Taxation  Madam Speaker, on the other side of the benches, they just do not do the math. Since the government has come into power, things such as the Canada child benefit, or CCB, have lifted over 450,000 children out of poverty so that they can have gymnastics classes and go on that summer road trip.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, we are in complete agreement that treatment services are health care services and that there need to be standards in place. Each provincial jurisdiction does have, although it is not equal across the board, standards in place. Can we do more to set national standards for this?

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, the $200 billion in bilateral agreements that the Minister of Health and I signed with all 13 provinces and territories this past year had clear guidelines with respect to the integrators and targets they needed to set in the commitments they set out in their work plans.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, I would not want to speak for the Minister of Housing, but from what we can see in the announcements that have been rolling out across the country, and with our firm commitment to speed up housing, including complex-need housing, I am encouraged by the work we are doing to see housing built.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, I am the last person who has to be convinced that safe consumption sites are important. Since 2017, with 41 safe consumption sites across this country, we have reversed 55 overdose deaths. We have seen over 4.6 million visits, and we have had over 417,000 referrals to treatment.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, quite the contrary. It is not that we cannot do anything; we are a key part of the approval process to enable safe consumption sites to be established in communities, and we continue to do that work. We are fully committed to doing that work. We know harm reduction is health care.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, we are working to make it as easy as possible for communities to be able to access supports to be able to set up the sites that they need.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, as I just said, we will work with communities to streamline the process of opening safe consumption sites as much as we can.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, I want to thank the member for his compassionate, consistent and relentless advocacy on what is a public health crisis. We have put over a billion dollars into addressing the overdose crisis in this country. We continue to invest through SUAP, through the emergency treatment fund in budget 2024, and also through $200 billion in bilateral agreements, of which over 30%, on average, across provinces and territories is going to mental health and substance use.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, can we do more? Yes, we can always do more, which is why we are making the investments we are making at this time. However, let me be clear that the appropriate mechanism to address the ongoing overdose crisis is not the Emergencies Act. We cannot address it that way.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, I am going to push back a bit here, because the renewed CDSS is our plan for addressing the crisis. In it, we talk about a holistic and interdepartmental approach, which means I will be working with my colleagues the Minister of Indigenous Services and the housing minister.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, we know that stigma will put people back into the dark shadows, using alone and dying alone, which is why we need to do everything we can to break stigma, open doors and bring them into the light.

Business of Supply  Madam Chair, I thank the Minister of Indigenous Services for her compassion. It is so important for us to remember what it means to be Canadian right now. We hold each other together, and we are holding each other through many challenging things right now, including the tragic lives lost through the overdose crisis.