Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Minister.
Now we'll go back to the opioid crisis.
This committee heard from many witnesses who told us directly that there's a profound lack of detox and addictions treatment facilities for Canadians and that this is a critical piece of helping deal with opioid addiction, and therefore death in Canada. We know that the people dying on the streets are primarily opioid addicts. Therefore, from a preventive point of view, making sure that all Canadians have access to publicly funded, accessible addictions treatment is a key part on the demand side of the question.
Accordingly, this committee made three separate recommendations in our report to your government that calls for significant new funding for public, community-based detox and addictions treatment for Canadians.
In your cover letter to the Canadian drugs and substances strategy issued yesterday, you said, and I quote:
I am confident that the proposed authorities, combined with the numerous federal and provincial actions and commitments to date, will help us to address the current crisis of opioid overdose and death in a comprehensive, compassionate, and evidence based manner.
Minister, we have not seen a commitment from your government for a substantial investment in addictions treatment in Canada. How can you say that you're strategy is comprehensive, without that?