First of all, my thanks to the witnesses for coming today. It's been good to hear both your expert experience and the experience from the community that was presented by the Portland Hotel.
In some ways, it's surprising that we're here in 2008, debating and studying harm reduction. As I believe Donald pointed out, 82 countries around the world support harm reduction. I think many of us had assumed and thought that the programs we have here in Canada were working. They're well received, they work at the community level, so why the heck are we here today still debating this issue? I think we know why. We'll have an opportunity to hear the minister later.
Insite is in my riding in East Vancouver, and I can tell you that I'm very glad it's there. I remember when it began. It was very controversial. Many of you were involved in the struggles that took place within the community. Now, without a shadow of a doubt, Insite has the support of the local business community, the Chinatown business community, the police, the board of trade, the premier of the province, the health minister--the list goes on. In fact, I can't find anybody who doesn't agree with Insite, other than Mr. Mangham and the minister.
So I think one of the issues we are dealing with is that people get hung up on the terminology, this term “harm reduction”.
Heather, you made a reference to low-threshold services. Mr. MacPherson, you mentioned that the city had talked a lot about the importance of low-threshold services. Neil Boyd mentions Mr. Small from the Portland Hotel Society, saying that Insite serves wounded individuals. We're talking about getting people in the door, off the street and in the door.
I wonder if Heather and Donald and maybe Liz could talk a little bit more about what low-threshold services are, to try to get across the idea that we're talking about things that actually work. We have more than enough evidence of it. But what are low-threshold services, and how do you describe them?