Health Committee on Feb. 5th, 2026

[Kendal Weber]

I am not familiar with that eligible expense, or even that activity in the site.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

According to a foundation in San Francisco, “Booty bumping involves mixing drugs (usually meth or cocaine) with water and squirting it into your butt through a syringe”.

Why is Health Canada funding an organization that enables drug use instead of preventing it?

[Kendal Weber]

Parkdale is funded by a number of different sources, including the province, so a variety of different health care services are offered there.

A supervised consumption site—not to be mixed up with the funding provided to organizations—is not funded by the Government of Canada. A supervised consumption site is an exemption provided by the Government of Canada for the possession of a substance.

Health Canada does not fund the actual supervised consumption, but it does fund—

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

I'm really glad.

That's my follow-up.

Thank you, Ms. Weber. This leads to the next one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'm sorry, Dan. You've finished your time. I let you go 10 seconds over.

[Dan Mazier, Conservative, Riding Mountain, MB]

Thank you for that, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I usually do that. Everybody gets the ability to get that done. I let Ms. Konanz have another 10 seconds as well.

The next person is Mr. Eyolfson for five minutes, please.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you, Chair.

I'd like to thank you all for coming.

To follow up on Mr. Mazier's previous questions, I'll go to you first, Ms. Weber, because you were the one being asked. Like the health minister, I have toured Insite in Vancouver. I've toured a similar site in Calgary. One question that came up is whether they ask for ID. To the best of your knowledge, are there not large numbers of unhoused people who are addicted to substances and don't have ID?

[Kendal Weber]

Regardless of the ID, the sites are there to support individuals who are in need.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Exactly.

[Kendal Weber]

At the sites, the individuals, as I've noted, have responded to over 65,000 overdoses, with over 624,000 referrals to health and social services, which can also be housing supports for individuals who are without housing.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you. Yes.

If there was a policy in which you couldn't access these services without ID, would it be reasonable to assume that the patient would simply say, “Well, then, I'm just not going to inject this”, or would it be more likely that, if turned away from consuming in this safe centre and without access, they would do it in an unsupervised place, with a higher risk of dying?

[Kendal Weber]

Using substances alone, not in a site, will definitely increase the chances of overdose and death. At the site, someone is there, and the services are there for support.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

All right. Thank you.

In regard to some of the criticisms on location, is this not based on recommendations of the provincial and local authorities? They make the decision: This is required here.

[Kendal Weber]

The sites are determined by the organizations and the communities. They come forward and seek the exemption. In some cases, a province will write a letter to support the actual location or the site. In other cases, provinces have legislation to indicate the amount of distance between a school and a site. I believe that, in Quebec, it's 150 metres. In Ontario, it's 200 metres. When a province has a distance in legislation, the organizations in those provinces must respect that legislation.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you.

We've been reminded frequently that the administration of health care is purely a provincial jurisdiction. In fact, for my previous tenure in Parliament, on attempts by the federal government to even so much as direct funding, we were told you can't do that, because this is managed. Given that, would you not say that these decisions—where the sites are, how they operate, whether they need ID, whether they have an age limit—would all be health care decisions under provincial jurisdiction?

[Kendal Weber]

Some sites are not provincially funded. Some of them are independently.... A few are privately funded. For the ones that are privately funded, if they're in a jurisdiction where there's provincial legislation that sets the distance.... As I've mentioned, in Ontario they would have to respect the 200 metres as set by the Province of Ontario. In Quebec they would definitely have to respect the 150 metres set by Quebec.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

I apologize. I guess I hadn't worded it clearly. I wasn't talking about funding. I was just thinking of the locations: where they are and under whose jurisdiction the management of the health care is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 43 seconds.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

They put these places where this is happening, do they not? This is my understanding from talking to experts in drug addiction. They don't generally say they're going to put this in a place where no one is using drugs: Build it and they will come.

[Kendal Weber]

The question is related to the legislation. There are criteria set in the legislation, and one of the pieces of information that a site must submit is the local conditions indicating a need for the site. That is one of the legislated requirements when a site comes in to seek an exemption.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Winnipeg West, MB]

Thank you. I believe that's my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, it is. Thank you very much, Doug.

I'll go to Mr. Blanchette-Joncas for two and a half minutes, please.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Curtis‑Micallef, the minister spoke earlier about saving lives through a connected health care system. I would like us to talk about another thing that saves lives: vaccines. Allow me to remind you that Canada is the only G7 country that was unable to produce its own vaccine.

In the latest federal budget, titled “Canada Strong”, what investments have been planned to enable Canada to produce its own vaccine if, unfortunately, we were to face another pandemic one day?

[Shalene Curtis-Micallef]

I will let my colleague respond.