—in the middle of a public health emergency. Both cost lives.
I don't appreciate being heckled here at this committee, Mr. Chair.
Secondly, we put forward Bill C-216 to take a health-based response to the toxic drug crisis, hoping it would get to committee and at least have an opportunity to be looked at.
We have had a summit on the theft of autos, which is, of course, an important issue, but this is the leading cause of death in my home province for those under the age of 59. There's still nothing. We have not had the government declare a national public health emergency. We were glad today in question period to finally see that they're going to reinstate, under our pressure, somewhat of a form of the expert task force on substance use. That's a relief.
Portugal implemented an expert task force and the politicians were heroes because they got out of the way. They let the experts lead instead of ideology.
Can you speak, Ms. Schulz, about the importance of listening to the experts and letting evidence-generated policy lead versus ideology and politics, and about how that is costing lives?