I would add to my colleague's thoughts. Moving forward with a supervised injection site does alter a community. I had the opportunity to tour Insite in Vancouver earlier in the spring and see first-hand the impact it's having on the community around it.
There's no doubt that it is having an impact. The building right across the street is 90% vacant because businesses won't rent there. The apartment just beside Insite has changed its clientele entirely, the landlord reported to us.
This does change a community. When I talked to police officers there, they also told me about the difficulties they have in enforcement issues.
This committee heard from the fire department in Vancouver and the incredible impact it's having. I don't know if you recall, but the gentleman who was here testifying was quite moved by the impact taking place there and the fact that they're going to the same individuals sometimes, two, three, four times a day, saving them from an overdose just outside the site.
I think it's quite silly of us to pretend that this does not somehow have an impact on the community surrounding these centres and that the community shouldn't be included.
The Liberals use the tag line of “We're going to take an evidence-based approach.” The Minister of Science said that, I think, four times in the House yesterday. I'd like to know where the evidence-based approach is on this, in collecting evidence from the community organizers who are going to be most impacted by this decision. This legislation as it stands right now fails to do that.