Evidence of meeting #126 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Opioid Response Team, Department of Health
It's certainly something that we're aware Manitoba has been pursuing. Anything we can do to help first-line responders to react immediately to overdoses, in whatever form they take, is helpful. It's absolutely something that we're looking into.
November 29th, 2018 / 9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Thank you very much.
I have another minute. Ms. Sidhu, did you have any questions on this?
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Thank you.
I guess I still have some other issues. They say that the....
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
If you don't have any questions, we can move on, because we're running over.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Yes. I was going through and wanted to make sure I didn't—
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you for being here.
As we know, the majority of meth available in Canada has been produced domestically, while some is coming from other countries as well. My question is to the border security person, or Mr. Bhupsingh, you can answer that. Have you found that this pattern has changed or stayed the same in recent years? Furthermore, should the government prioritize targeting domestic producers or shift to a tighter borders safety strategy?
Director General, Law Enforcement and Border Strategies Directorate, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Maybe I can start and I'll turn it to my colleague from the RCMP.
I don't think it's one or the other. I think it's both. We are certainly seeing that there is domestic production, but then we are also seeing precursors come from other countries that have been mentioned, and then being assembled here. Also, in some cases, we're seeing Canada being used as a transit country, where methamphetamine is being exported.
In answer to your question, I think it's probably a multitude of strategies to deal with the supply reduction side of it, just because there are many different elements to the supply domestically. Also, there clearly is a problem with precursors coming into the country and the regulation issues we talked about.
Liberal
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Thank you very much.
Just building on the thing I was talking about before in my last round, of the five provinces that have come to an agreement have any allocated money to operational costs, or should I say treatment beds for people with no income or money?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Opioid Response Team, Department of Health
Each of the action plans is available online, and you can see what each province is doing individually.
In fact, yes, some have allocated funds to treatment beds specifically. As I said, Saskatchewan in particular has allocated funds specifically to methamphetamine use, and we expect that others might do the same.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
That's good to hear.
I think Ms. Boudreau made a comment about having pharmaceuticals behind the shelf, perhaps.
I was at a Shoppers Drug Mart the other day, and the Aleve, etc., and any of the things for sinus infections that would be included in the making of these drugs were all there.
One thing I was surprised by—and maybe I have never paid attention—was the self-checkout method. Just while we're sitting here, you could load your grocery bag right full of it, take it right through the wicket and no one would even know. Should we be asking pharmacies to...?
Maybe they want self-checkout to cut costs, but maybe, in order to get a box, you're going to have to talk to the pharmacist. Is that something we should be asking pharmacies to do?
Director General, Controlled Substances Directorate, Department of Health
We do work with the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities, NAPRA, which you may be familiar with. It gives some guidance to the pharmacy colleges from province to province about things like where to keep products—behind the shelf or in front—and it is left to each individual province in the pharmacy college to make those determinations.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
As someone with no experience at all in medicine or pharmacy, just in looking at it, it seems quite unethical to me. If this is a huge problem, it's a smorgasbord of products that you have access to. Hopefully, we'll have something on this in our report.
I have another question to mention. When you look at the list of pharmaceutical companies around the globe that sell these products, it's not millions but hundreds of millions and billions. In terms of that $130 million the government provided, it seems to me that all these pharmaceutical companies should have paid up as well if they were going to sell these products in the country. That's just an observation of mine.
They each should have chipped in $100 million, as far as I'm concerned. Was there any dialogue amongst the drug makers about helping out to create a bigger fund to leverage to help eradicate this issue?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Opioid Response Team, Department of Health
There hasn't been a specific discussion around the issue of amphetamines with regard to the pharmaceutical industry paying for treatment or other services related to that. As you know, there have been a number of discussions happening in the area of opioids and ensuring that we are restricting the marketing ability of pharmaceutical companies associated with that.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Okay. I think it would be great to have some of the pharmaceutical companies appear before committee to see if they have any generosity in their hearts around the Christmas season to chip in and help these dollars go further.
One other thing is on CIHR. Do they have any research programs that they are contributing towards to do research at universities or what have you on something to improve this condition?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Opioid Response Team, Department of Health
This is an area that we have been discussing with CIHR and with, as I said, this network that they fund across the country, which is called CRISM. There is one study under way. We expect that they'll be looking at these issues more broadly. The way the funding rolls out is that we have calls for proposals that come in, and we do expect that this is an area that we'll be able to shore up.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
One quick last question is on the duty to report. If you're a realtor, you do a transaction and you think it's suspicious, you have a duty to report to FINTRAC, etc. We've heard a lot about that recently.
The point I want to make is about pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies. Is it anywhere in the law and in legislation that they actually have a duty to report suspicious activity, and where if they fail to do so, they can face criminal charges?
Director General, Controlled Substances Directorate, Department of Health
Perhaps I'll answer that question. With regard to the precursor chemicals and the scheduled chemicals under the CDSA, licensed dealers are required. There is a duty to report suspicious transactions to Health Canada.
Liberal
Ramez Ayoub Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will focus more on the uneven geographical distribution of the crisis, between the west—more specifically Manitoba—and the east. Aside from the sale price, what makes the situation different? Are other drugs more accessible in eastern Canada, or are criminal or contraband organizations better organized for methamphetamine production? Do you have an explanation?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Opioid Response Team, Department of Health
I will begin, and then I will yield the floor to my colleagues.
There is no easy answer. Of course, the price may influence behaviours. Users also have a certain mentality. As we have seen, it is clear that cocaine is the norm in Quebec. My colleagues will be able to tell you more about that, but the way drugs enter the country and their price may have an influence.
We believe that the fact that opiates have been contaminated for some time may have impacted the market. People no longer want to consume something that is 70% or 80% contaminated by fentanyl. They may turn to a substitute drug, but that answer seems too simple.
Many factors have to be taken into account, and that is why we really want to implement our observatory. Data from all agencies must be compiled to have an overview of the for, the when, the how and the why.
I don't know whether my colleagues want to add anything on how the products are entering the country.