Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member opposite. He lives in the Lower Mainland. I am sure he is as aware, as I and other Lower Mainland MPs are, of the depth and breadth of the crisis taking place right now. Every day, two people die in the Lower Mainland. Every day in Ontario two people die. Every day In Alberta a person dies. This is a health crisis of an unimaginable extent. It is something that should be calling the government to take immediate action. Instead, for over a year, we saw the government drag its feet and refuse to do anything as the death toll rose, doubling and tripling. We are now talking about thousands of Canadians dying over the past couple of years.
The implications are enormous if nothing much happens. The government has moved very slowly on legislation. It has waited 15 months now. We are coming up to February tomorrow. The Liberals took office and could have moved something in December 2015. They have done nothing really to in any way fight to put in place the addiction treatment programs that are needed across the country, and they have refused to call a public health emergency.
Why is the government moving so dreadfully slowly in the midst of this crisis?