Public Safety Committee on Oct. 27th, 2014

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Okay. I think that's important.

We also heard from the minister in the first hour about this legislation, which aims to address the issues raised by the Supreme Court. It's meant to ensure communities are adequately consulted to allow the Minister of Health the tools needed to make a proper decision.

Most of the criteria are in fairly plain language and understandable but a few have technical aspects. I'll give you an example. One of them is scientific evidence of medical benefits.

Could you give me some examples of what that evidence would be?

[Suzy McDonald]

I think we spoke about this earlier.

The scientific evidence that we're looking for here is a medical benefit, and again, a reduction in the risk of disease or death. This would be one example.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

What kind of data would you be looking for?

[Suzy McDonald]

I think a colleague mentioned that a tremendous amount of international data is available around safe consumption sites. A significant amount of data is available on InSite. That's the type of medical information that would be acceptable under this.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Okay.

Part of the criteria is also contacting local law enforcement officials.

What kind of data and information would they be providing to an applicant?

[C/Supt Eric Slinn]

Are you asking what law enforcement would be looking for specifically?

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Yes.

[C/Supt Eric Slinn]

I would dare say that we'd be looking at crime trends for a particular area in relation to that specific site, criminality around drug use. We'd be looking at the availability of crack cocaine or heroin in that market or in that city, that type of data.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Okay.

[C/Supt Eric Slinn]

We'd be looking for general crime stats as well as robbery, break and enter, and all the different types of crime that are intrinsically linked to drug use or drug trafficking.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Very good.

I have one more minute.

Proposed subsection 56(3) has two proposed subparagraphs regarding consumption of illicit drugs in public in the area and the discarding of needles or other litter in the area. I think this is a critical aspect as these are the sorts of things that will impact the community and its safety.

Could you comment on why this information is important to be included in the application and in the package sent to the minister? Could you discuss in more detail the sort of information that would be entailed and how it would be acquired?

[The Chair, Conservative, Daryl Kramp]

Could you repeat the question just briefly, Mr. Falk?

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Some of the information that is to be included in the application is on the discarding of needles or other litter in the area. I think that's important. I think that's been talked about by some of the other members as well, that there have been reports of needles found in playgrounds. How does a person acquire that kind of data?

[Suzy McDonald]

Again, I think your honourable colleague noted earlier that there is information available in their communities through various information mechanisms. There is information on publicly discarded drug-related litter. You'll note that this says, “information, if any, on the presence of inappropriately discarded drug-related litter...”. So on this one we would be looking for examples of where that litter might be and any data that you might have if you're collecting data on public parks where this litter is found, for example, or schoolyards where this litter is found. That would all be acceptable information. I will note again, though, that this is one of the ones where we indicate “if any information is available”, recognizing....

[The Chair, Conservative, Daryl Kramp]

That is our round of questioning.

At this time, the chair certainly would like to express our appreciation to the witnesses for coming in here today. We do thank you very, very much for taking the time, and obviously offering your expertise in response to the questions from the committee. We certainly thank the committee members for their courtesies today, as we're trying to deal with an issue that obviously has a number of challenges, but also some tremendous opportunities.

The meeting is adjourned.