Thank you for your comments. I appreciate them.
First of all, let me state for the record and make it crystal clear that this was never about closing Insite. I don't have the power to close Insite. I didn't want Insite to be closed. It was about whether there would continue to be an exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Insite does other things. They do some referral, not as much as I'd like, but they do it. They do treatment now. They didn't at the beginning, but now they do. They do needle exchange. I have nothing against needle exchange. They distribute condoms. I have nothing against the distribution of condoms. These are all aspects of harm reduction that our government has no complaint about.
I want to put that on the record, because sometimes I read statements like “Clement is going to close Insite” or “Clement wants to...”. I don't have the power to do that, and second, I don't want to do that. So I want to put that very clearly on the record.
My understanding of low-threshold services includes needle exchange, condom distribution, and a number of other facets of activities that occur at Insite or around Insite. We have no difficulty with that. Indeed, we want to support that as best we can. That's why I announced $10 million directly for the downtown eastside, to get the teams out there on the street to identify people who can be helped, and to specifically....
When I visited the downtown eastside, I was appalled by the lack of beds available for sex workers, most of them women. It was appalling, and quite frankly almost criminal. One of the things I want to do with that $10 million is make sure the women of the downtown eastside, the sex workers of the downtown eastside, have beds specifically available to them. And I'm very proud of that announcement of two weeks ago.
Second, you asked about the treatment impacting on 10% to 20%. The injection site only impacts a certain number of people in the downtown eastside, and those who use it only use it 10% of the time. So when we talk about the panacea, the fact of the matter is that the injection site has been tried and the evidence is now in that very few people use it—97% don't use it, and those who do use it only use it for 10% of their injections. So if I want to do something for Canada, if I want to do something for the downtown eastside, I will put my eggs in the basket of treatment and prevention.