Thank you very much.
Thank you, Minister, for appearing, and thanks to all the officials for being here.
I'm going to continue on some similar themes, but perhaps in a slightly different frame.
In the Yukon, as you know, drug overdoses and deaths continue at alarming levels. Mayo, Yukon is one community that has been hit particularly hard in the last three years. There have been numerous deaths in this small community of a few hundred. They were also tragically hit by a double homicide in the community—it's currently under investigation—just a week and a half ago.
They have called an emergency in order to take some extraordinary measures to reinforce community safety and to address addictions and drug trafficking on a more urgent level.
Just so you know, one of the asks brought from the community is that supports for private treatment that were provided during the pandemic be extended so that people can have short-term access to addictions treatment in the absence of other options at the moment.
Clearly, the spectrum of supports needs to be brought to bear. They are preventative measures, including access for children and youth, recreation, mental health support, cultural connection, early intervention and harm reduction with social and medical supports, including, as you mentioned earlier, opioid agonist treatment, clinical substitution and the possibility of safe drug supply for those who can't benefit from clinical OAT treatment and other measures adapted to where that individual is on their substance use journey, which I think is really the essence of harm reduction. It's one of those pillars of support. Of course, it would also be access to treatment options, including clinical treatment, counselling, social supports and aftercare.
In light of that, I wonder if you could comment on how the current funding and committed funding from our federal government can be utilized to answer the needs of communities. We know the ire across the country. Mayo is in a bad state at the moment, but we know there are many in a similar situation around the country.