I think everyone at committee is in agreement that we are in a national public health crisis with the introduction of fentanyl and the opioid crisis. The government has already taken action.
There is a five-point action plan to address opioid misuse and to deal with prescribing practises. Naloxone was introduced, which is a very powerful antidote. It is generally available to communities. The minister co-hosted a conference and a summit on opioids that resulted in 42 organizations making very concrete commitments to address the crisis. Then we had Bill C-37 introduced to the House.
Bill C-37 proposes to ease the burden on communities that wish to open supervised consumption sites, while putting stronger measures in place to stop the flow of illicit drugs and strengthening the systems in place for licensed controlled substance facilities. I think we were all delighted when the NDP joined with the government side yesterday to send this to our standing committee for line-by-line review.
I think we would all agree that we are ideally situated to deal with this review. We have heard from witnesses. We have already done our work on the opioid crisis. We did our report. We made our recommendations. We heard from the witnesses how critical it is that we move quickly and forthrightly to get these recommendations in place to ease what is happening at the community level.
Bill C-37 is highly consistent with our recommendations, dealing with both harm reduction and law enforcement in border security. I actually mentioned in the House that the bill is quite well aligned with us.
Given that we are ideally situated to move forward with this, and given the urgency of dealing with this in our communities and putting a stop to this crisis, I would like to bring forward this motion. I move:
That, with respect to Bill C-37, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and to make related amendments to other Acts: a. the Clerk of the Committee write immediately to each Member who is not a member of a caucus represented on the Committee and any independent Members to inform them that the Committee will begin the study of the Bill and to invite them to prepare and submit any proposed amendments, which they would suggest that the Committee consider during the clause-by-clause study of the Bill; b. members of the Committee as well as Members who are not a member of a caucus represented on the Committee and independent Members should submit their proposed amendments to the Clerk of the Committee no later than Tuesday, February 7, 2017, at 4:00 p.m.; c. the Committee proceed with the clause-by-clause consideration of C-37 no later than Thursday, February 9, 2017; d. the Chair may limit debate on each clause to a maximum of five minutes per party, per clause; and e. if the Committee has not completed clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-37 by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 9, 2017, all remaining amendments submitted to the Committee shall be deemed moved, the Chair shall put every question, forthwith and successively, without further debate or amendment on all remaining clauses and amendments submitted to the Committee, as well as each and every question necessary to dispose of clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill, as well as all questions necessary to report the Bill to the House and to order the Chair to report the Bill to the House no later than Monday, February 13, 2017.
We need to get this done. We need to get this back to the House so we can make a difference in this crisis across Canada.