Evidence of meeting #7 for Justice and Human Rights in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meth.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:05 p.m.
Executive Officer, Drug Prevention Network of Canada
We're self-funded right now.
1:05 p.m.
NDP
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
Okay.
I could get into a big discussion with you about harm reduction, but I'm probably not going to convince you, and you're probably not going to convince me. But clearly your organization doesn't have that element.
Mayor McQueen, what you did in your community sounds very interesting, because you reached out to try to bring in the various stakeholders.
I have just two points.
I believe the resolution you circulated to us is from 2003. I'm not sure how long it took to get to the FCM, but I'm wondering whether the regulations we spoke about earlier may have come in after that, because I think there was a fair amount of activity amongst local communities and certainly, in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C., among the western premiers.
Mr. Chair, I am thinking.... I know there's another day on Thursday, but it seems to me that we need some kind of official information from either Health Canada or the Department of Justice to get a handle on some of the statistics here and what these regulations are.
Again I want to point out to Mayor McQueen that my understanding is, from the City of Vancouver's report, that one of the changes that took place was that business operators are now required to have a licence to import, export, manufacture, and distribute...and then they list the various elements. So there have been some more recent changes that I think address your resolution.
The question I have is this. You mention that you have done prevention, and I don't know what you were able to do by way of treatment. In our community, one of the most difficult things we've had to face is a lack of resources for treatment and, particularly for young people, treatment that is accessible, that is open, that you can go back for again, for which you get long-term support.... But it's really hard for people even to get on the waiting list.
I don't know whether there's a similar situation in your community, but I wonder whether you could speak a bit about what you were able to do by way of prevention education and whether or not you were able to make any headway on the treatment side.
1:10 p.m.
Mayor, Town of Drayton Valley
Thank you, Ms. Davies, for the question.
Certainly on prevention and education we did fantastically.
In part, Premier Klein's task force dealt with the lack of treatment facilities within our province, and I would say that lack is probably clear across the country.
The treatment issue has always been the hardest part for us to deal with. Ours is a community of 7,000 people, so obviously, other than the supports from AADAC, we do not have the support of treatment beds. Those needing treatment would go to Edmonton or other centres within the province. Definitely, with regard to crystal meth, the treatment, according to the experts, is different from the treatment for some other drugs they're having to deal with.
So we have a lack of treatment facilities, and I know that currently, under Premier Stelmach, they're working towards looking at how to deal with treatment as part of their whole crime initiative.
That is probably the most outstanding point we need to deal with in our province: the treatment facilities for this. We did the best we could with the resources we had on the prevention and education and enforcement side and we saw cracks that needed to be filled. The resolution won, and we thank the federal government for working on certain legislation that has come to date. That was something we were very proud to see, and you're absolutely right, there has been great movement on it. We're very grateful, as all our communities are.
In the area of treatment, we're still working on it. We've been early champions because we were having to deal with the problem early, but the work is still not done. I think this private member's bill shows a full understanding from an MP that the work isn't done. You will see that more needs to be done on the legislation side and also on the treatment side.
I would say those are the two areas that probably need the most work.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Wetaskiwin, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank both of you for presenting here today.
Hello, Diana. How are you today?
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Wetaskiwin, AB
I'm doing just fine. It's great to have someone from the great community of Drayton Valley, which is very close to the great constituency of Wetaskiwin, talking here today at this committee.
It's a very serious and important issue. I want to ask you a few questions concerning some specifics from your community insofar as the two RCMP officers are concerned.
Is that still going on?
1:10 p.m.
Mayor, Town of Drayton Valley
Yes, Mr. Calkins, it is. We were one of the first communities to hire what we called our two-unit drug team, the GIS team. We still have those two members, and I'm very proud to say that other communities around us have also brought in GIS members.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Wetaskiwin, AB
Do you have any statistics or any information or records that these officers have been tracking, insofar as arrests are concerned or investigating the sources or points of origin where the methamphetamine was created, that you could submit to this committee?
Mr. Chair, I would be very much in favour of seeing what some of those statistics are and what some of the successes are, from the enforcement perspective.
Is that something you think you would be able to submit to the committee?
1:10 p.m.
Mayor, Town of Drayton Valley
I will certainly talk with our staff sergeant in the RCMP. They have that material. One of the witnesses who also presented was an RCMP member. If you would like to have that information, we can get the information from our local detachment. AADAC would have results and numbers as well.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Wetaskiwin, AB
I've been to your community many times, lots during my youth. I had some family there that I went and visited. Of course, you and I both know that the community has been through some booms and some busts, and it's had some difficult times. I certainly want to commend you and everybody else in the community for taking on the challenge of methamphetamine.
I would just like to get your opinion, or your input, insofar as the age of the young people who are getting involved, and on some of the things that are happening. Can you give us any specific or anecdotal things?
I've heard from police officers directly about drug dealers and so on lacing marijuana cigarettes with crystal meth in order to get people hooked and move on with these kinds of things. Can you tell us, is there anything like that that has been deterred or has been tackled head on with your task force there or with the RCMP?
Do you know of any operations in Drayton Valley or in the area there? I know you mentioned one along Highway 16, a drug house or a manufacturing facility, that was closed down. Is there anything like that in Drayton Valley that you're aware of, that you can talk of? Have there been any successful crackdowns on that, or have there been any cases of people who are in possession of the precursor material who have basically been able to walk because there wasn't sufficient legislation to take care of the situation? It's rather a long question.
1:15 p.m.
Mayor, Town of Drayton Valley
Thank you. There are a few questions in that question.
Certainly that would be a question the RCMP could answer far better than myself. My understanding, though, is that in Drayton Valley proper, the town limits, there have not been any meth labs within the town. I think what you'll hear quite often is many of these labs, especially the bigger labs, are moving out more and more into the rural area, where they can't be noticed. They're further out in the rural areas. Certainly the big lab was in the Gainford area, so on the Highway 16 corridor, a very rural, small remote area. That's where more of the drugs are.
We're in very close proximity to Edmonton, as you know. We're about an hour and a half from Edmonton. So a lot of the drugs will come from that area. Also on the Highway 16 corridor, the Edson-Hinton-Whitecourt-Drayton Valley area, we know that certainly they're coming from that corridor and coming from the city as well.
There are no labs within the town proper, or even within our county, that I am aware of.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would echo Ms. Davies' request for a legal expert who could help us by telling what this bill would add to what's in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and through the precursor regulations.
I'm going to ask those same questions to Mr. Bigras, in case he can shed some light on it. So the first question is this. What could be caught under this act that could not be caught under the fact that this drug is already illegal under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act?
1:15 p.m.
Executive Officer, Drug Prevention Network of Canada
I believe there'd be an enforcement and a penalty attached to it that's not there right now, if I understand rightly.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
I think there are pretty strict enforcement and penalties in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
1:15 p.m.
Executive Officer, Drug Prevention Network of Canada
Under the precursors, I could stand to be corrected, I thought there was just a reporting structure in place for that; that it wasn't illegal to possess ephedrine, that it's not illegal to sell it, but it depends on the motives behind it. I think this would bring in a penalty aspect to it that I don't believe is there now, and I could stand to be corrected.
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
To both witnesses, the FCM motion on control of the precursors, could that be—I don't think it's referenced in the act that we're actually dealing with today—handled under the precursor control regulations that Canada has? Your Worship or Mr. Bigras, are you looking for new legislation that would allow that FCM resolution to be implemented?
1:15 p.m.
Executive Officer, Drug Prevention Network of Canada
I believe that would strengthen it even more, sir.
1:20 p.m.
Executive Officer, Drug Prevention Network of Canada
This proposed section 7.1. would give it more strength with the penalty aspect.
