You're very welcome, Todd.
I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to serve. It taught me a lot of things.
Here we are not offering veterans help. We're not saying, "Here's a hand, grab hold. I don't want you to die.” Not us.
The NDP-Liberal coalition government is offering medical assistance in dying to veterans who need incredible amounts of mental health support because of what we as a country have asked them to do. We have asked, "Will you sign on the dotted line? Will you serve? Are you willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for doing what we believe as a country is right?" They answered that call. They said yes. The NDP-Liberal coalition government failed them.
Chair, if it were only one veteran who was failed, maybe someone could call it a mistake, but it was not only one veteran. There were multiple veterans. This was a pattern of behaviour that, to me, could only come from where all the decisions come from in the NDP-Liberal coalition, and that is straight from the Prime Minister's Office. That is where it would appear all the decisions come from. That is a sad state of affairs.
We've been debating opioid therapy. I found it very rich today that nine years have passed and the only argument that the NDP-Liberal coalition has come up with is so-called safe supply. Let's give out free drugs. I find it absolutely fascinating that suddenly colleagues on the opposite side are now saying that we need comprehensive treatment.
We've been talking on the Conservative side of a common-sense solution of comprehensive treatment for years now, ever since I came to this place three years ago. Those are the things that we have been talking about on this side of the House. We do not believe that giving out an endless supply of high-powered opioids is what is going to enable this crisis to end.
We do believe that there is a possibility for rehabilitation and treatment for every person that is affected by the opioid crisis. We do not believe in just giving them opioids, which is palliative care. That is saying to them, "Guess what. You are never going to get better. Just take these drugs.” I believe that the costly coalition wants them to take drugs and be quiet, because then they're not a problem to them. That, of course, is an absolutely ridiculous thing to do.
As we begin to understand what the NDP-Liberal coalition has done to destroy health care in this country, it is an incredibly rich and—and perhaps unparliamentary for me to say—ridiculous argument to say that they want to talk about the health care system as it suddenly becomes a ballot-box issue. We begin to see what's important to Canadians.
First of all, for the people I visit whose doors I knock on, it's the cost of living. That's the important thing. They say, “I cannot put gas in my car. I cannot put food on my table. I cannot put a roof over my head.” Those things are what we hear every single day. If all of you who sit around this table are not hearing that, I suggest you have your hearing checked.
Then, suddenly, health care becomes a ballot-box issue. We should address health care.
Why don't you get rid of the carbon tax and address the cost of living? We know that one of the determinants of health is the ability to go ahead and put good food on the table so that you can have a healthy life. Those are things that are incredibly important. Those are the changes, the blue seal program, getting rid of the carbon tax, fixing the budget, building houses and stopping crime. Those are things that those of us on this side of the House are seized with.
We're not seized with fanciful notions of suddenly having a wake-up call to now treat people with opioid addiction properly. After not doing it for nine years, we're suddenly going to fix the most revered public health care system. That's not what we're seized with on this side of the House.
Chair, as you well know, there are many more things I could go on about, but seeing the clock at 1:05, I suggest that we adjourn this meeting at this time and pick it up later.
I move to adjourn.
(Motion negatived)