Debates of Feb. 14th, 2017

Motions in amendment

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise at report stage on Bill C-37 to add my perspective to the debate.

All of us in the House agree that we are facing a very real crisis. The casual or addictive use of drugs is now including a much higher risk of death. Indeed, many people have compared it to playing Russian roulette with what is out on the streets and what is being mixed into drugs. It is truly a risk for everyone.

Bill C-37 represents a partial response to the crisis. There are many measures in the bill that are important and supportable, but there are some areas which obviously we still have some concerns about. Even with the supportable measures, I think we need to talk a bit about the time it took to get us to this point.

It was 10 months ago today, April 14, when British Columbia's provincial health officer declared a state of emergency in relation to the rising death rate being seen every day. It was related to fentanyl being laced into drugs. Back in 2012, it was in about 5% of drugs and it was reaching up to 60% in 2016. It was recognized that we had a crisis and B.C. declared a state of emergency. That was 10 months ago.

Meanwhile, we know that carfentanil has been confirmed on the streets as well. It is very important that we have a public awareness campaign, because many parents, children, youth, and young adults have no idea what is out there on the street. Carfentanil is for use on large animals like elephants. It is 100 times more potent than fentanyl, 4,000 times more potent than heroin, 10,000 times more potent than morphine. People can actually order it by mail from China, and it can be delivered.

In the fall of last year, a man in Calgary was arrested, and I believe he had a kilogram of carfentanil, which had the potential to kill 50 million people.

We have all agreed that we need to give additional powers to our border security folks. How long has that taken? We had a state of emergency 10 years ago. We finally got a bill that would do this, right before Christmas when there was no time to debate it. The bill was sort of packed with a number of different measures, many of which are supportable, but the government had to know here was one area that was going to create debate.

First of all, the government should have had this bill on the table way back in the fall. Second, let us get that piece that is non-controversial through the House, and then spend a bit of time debating the issues that we are concerned about.

The bill also includes the prohibition of designated devices, such as pill presses. We know that in Canada there is no reason for anyone to have a pill press without it being registered. I understand that this change could have been done in the regulatory framework, but instead, we waited months and months and it was put into the bill. Instead of a quick, simple process that would have been an appropriate response to an emergency, we have gone at a pace similar to that for many of the bills in the House which are not critical. However, this is a bill that is critical, and these items should have been acted on a long time ago.

As I have indicated, we really do support many of the measures in the bill, but it should have been here 10 months ago. It should have been here eight months ago. I was very disappointed that the Liberals did not support moving it through at all stages. We offered to move it through at all stages and it could have been law right now. Our border services agents could be opening those small packages and capturing some of these illicit substances in the mail as we speak. I think the government has been negligent.

It was interesting to hear the member for Vancouver Centre talk about how important this bill is, but even she recognized last summer that her government was moving too slowly. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to ask her a question about that so that she could articulate more clearly what her concerns were at that time.

There is a section of the bill we do have some problems with. The Liberals are gutting community consultation and there is truly a lack of rigour. They talk about complying with the Supreme Court, but they have taken all the rigour out of the compliance. They have some very undefined statements and principles. There is no definition around them. I do have big concerns that they have taken some of those items out.

On November 16, the Minister of Health was at the indigenous affairs committee. I want to refer to a couple of comments she made at that time.

We talked about a lack of proper data. She said:

The point you've raised brings up one of the real challenges on the opioid crisis, which is that there is actually not the kind of data and surveillance we would like to have, even in terms of the total overall number of overdoses and overdose deaths.

Having a solution means we need to have data, and I do not see us making much movement toward having good data, in terms of informing the proper solutions for different communities.

In response to some questions I was asking about the availability of detox and rehabilitation, she said:

I think it would be accurate to say that there is a shortage of treatment facilities and programs.

The government has no trouble putting criteria around home and mental health care. It is very happy to say to the provinces that we have to have some criteria around home and mental health care, but the requirement for associated detox and rehab at safe community injection sites has been taken away.

That is something that was attached because, to be frank, there are a lot of priorities for dollars to be spent within our provinces and our health authorities, and there is a huge and extreme lack of detox and rehabilitation facilities. In spite of the minister's acknowledgement that there is a shortage, she actually chose to remove that from the bill.

Again, at the meeting on November 16, we talked about the importance of community consultation. She said:

I've made it clear that for communities that need them, where they're appropriate and where there's a community desire to have those programs, we need to find mechanisms to make them more available as one of a range of tools. Of course, this is the kind of thing where there would be collaboration with the community and with provincial health authorities.

Then she went on to say “community consultation is absolutely essential” .

Let us take those quotes and look at the very reasonable amendment. There were some concerns from the current government that the process was too onerous, so my colleague, who is the critic for health, made what I thought were very appropriate suggestions for amendments. He suggested that what was needed was mayor and council to support a safe injection site. Many of us have a local government past. We would agree that mayor and council can have critical, absolutely critical, insight in terms of what, where, and how.

They talked about the RCMP having some input. They talked about a public consultation process that includes notices to the people who live within two kilometres of the area.

The minister talked about community consultation. It is very nebulous and unclear in the existing legislation. What was proposed was something that was very reasonable, very sensible, but the government chose to ignore putting any sort of framework around community consultation. I think it has made a big mistake.

Our concern is very important. It is valid. We cannot take the community consultation process away. We need a bit of rigour, and they have taken that rigour out of the process.

I look to members opposite to reconsider that particular element, because anyone who has ever been in local government knows how important it is to have a framework around the local community consultation process.

In my final comments, another really important gap we see that perhaps is not part of legislation, is there has been no commitment at all on the part of the government for a national education and awareness campaign. That is something to which the government should give very serious consideration.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, it has been interesting listening to the debate thus far, and this is my first opportunity for an interjection.

I want to make it very clear that this has been a priority issue for this government. Our Minister of Health and others have indicated it as being a national health care crisis and the government is moving forward. It has met with many different stakeholders, including at the provincial level. It is working with many different stakeholders who are involved in trying to come up with ideas.

I do take some exception in the sense that we did introduce the legislation late last year, and that is because there is a lot that needs to be done in the lead-up to legislation. The Conservative Party was provided the opportunity back in December to pass the bill and chose not to do it. I appreciate the fact that the New Democrats did.

Could the member indicate when the Conservative Party first raised the issue inside the House of Commons in the form of a question during question period? Question period often reflects the priorities of the opposition. Does the member have any sense of when it was first raised by the official opposition in the House?

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we are on the coal face, and certainly as far back as shortly after the state of emergency in British Columbia was declared, I know my colleague from South Surrey—White Rock, and certainly a number of us did express our concerns.

My bigger point is there are measures. When there is a strike and it is determined we need to have back-to-work legislation, it happens immediately. We knew carfentanil was coming in from China. We knew it was coming in in small packages. It has taken 10 months to get a piece of legislation on the table that gives some additional powers to our border guards to seize and intercept packages containing something that has the capability of killing thousands.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I am reassured to hear a Conservative Party member use that tone when speaking about this bill, and I appreciate it. However, I cannot resist asking her to explain her position, since, to date, her party has been extremely skeptical about supervised consumption sites. When the Conservatives were in power, they even passed a bill that limited the establishment of these sites and made it extremely complicated to do so.

As part of its partisan campaigns, this party even sent emails to its supporters saying how frightening and appalling it was that the Liberals and the NDP wanted safe consumption sites in their backyards.

How can my colleague explain her current pragmatism given her party's attitude when it was in power in the previous Parliament?

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to note that there has been approval given to new injection sites under the existing process. In Kamloops we have a mayor and council who have endorsed 100% moving forward with a safe injection site.

We had 26 criteria which created some rigour around the process, and because of that rigour, we have a community like Kamloops where the downtown business association has been engaged. Its members have made suggestions in terms of locations. Council is voting 100% unanimously to support it because there was rigour around the process in moving forward.

What the government is suggesting and what the bill does is it guts all the rigour of the process. I think we will be heading down a very bad path in terms of having that support and that good advice from communities on how to do things and where to do things.

[Dianne Lynn Watts, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Speaker, certainly the member's community has been hit very hard with an over 200% increase in deaths.

This comes back to the data. I have a list here of 12 deaths, which is a very small snapshot, of kids in their mid-twenties, the deaths of just a dozen young kids who would not use a consumption site, who are not injecting.

We are very concerned about saving lives, whether it is an individual who has been an addict on the street for a very long time, or whether it is our young adolescents. The bill is so vacant in dealing with our adolescent population, and I am wondering if the member can comment on that.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I talked about the lack of data, What was very surprising was that when I looked at the data in Kamloops, we had 40 deaths in the last year. Those are mothers, daughters, and sons. It is horrific. Was that through ingestion or related to addiction? How does it break down? We really need to target our support and resources, and that information is not there.

Our ability to understand the problem in all its complexity is not actually helped by the data that is currently available. Regardless of the reason, we need to have strategies for the different issues we are dealing with, and we simply do not have that.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Multiculturalism)]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise today in support of Bill C-37. We have a national public health crisis in Canada right now. Last year, in British Columbia alone, more than 900 people died from drug overdoses, an increase of over 80% from the previous year, and the situation is getting worse. Deaths from drug overdoses, including fentanyl and carfentanil, are now predicted to exceed deaths by car accidents. Thousands have died, and thousands more will die unless we, as parliamentarians, take decisive action. Bill C-37 represents decisive action.

This bill would address our public health crisis and help save lives in a few important ways. It would simplify and streamline the application process for communities that wish to open supervised consumption sites to limit drug overdoses. It would put stronger measures in place to stop the flow of illegal drugs into our communities.

Bill C-37 represents a vitally important step and necessary shift in the treatment of drug addiction from a framework of punishment and strict law enforcement, practised by the previous government, to one focused on health care and based on scientific evidence.

I am proud to support this bill on behalf of my constituents in Parkdale—High Park. The care and compassion of the people in my community, coupled with their political engagement and depth of knowledge on these issues, has translated into overwhelming support for a shift in how we treat people experiencing drug addiction. My constituents want a federal government that responds to health crises, like the tragic deaths of thousands of Canadians from accidental opioid overdoses in 2016, with a compassionate strategy based on evidence, not the knee-jerk ideological responses that characterized the previous government's zero tolerance approach.

This past July in Toronto, the city where I live and serve the people of Parkdale—High Park, city council approved plans for three future safe consumption sites. In Toronto, there are already 50 such locations that offer harm reduction services and access to clean syringes and needles, including the Parkdale Community Health Centre and the Breakaway Addiction Services Satellite clinic in my riding. Both of these organizations provide an invaluable service in my community. They help save lives in Parkdale—High Park by treating addicts with care and compassion, not punishment and stigma.

Bill C-37 would help by expanding the harm reduction network that already exists in my community and across the city of Toronto.

I want to explore the idea of harm reduction a little more. At its core, the principle of harm reduction is about taking a realistic approach to drug use and addiction and thinking practically and respectfully about the best options for treatment. As we all know in this chamber, drug addicts do not desire or choose to continue using substances that put them at risk of harm. Addiction is a brain disorder; it is not a choice.

People experiencing addiction compulsively engage with rewarding stimuli, despite the harm it does to their health, their relationships, and their very lives. While prevention and treatment are the central pillars of any drug strategy, we acknowledge, on this side of the House, the reality that people who are experiencing addiction will use drugs for a period of time until they are in treatment.

Harm reduction strategies and treatment goals are not incompatible. To the contrary, they are actually mutually reinforcing. Harm reduction strategies assist by helping to keep addicts alive and moving them toward treatment. Harm reduction strategies are the best alternative for people for whom prevention or criminal sanctions have not been effective. Harm reduction does not mean that we are giving up on these people or enabling them to use. It is quite the opposite. Through harm reduction, we are refusing to give up on these very people. We are refusing to let them die.

The contrast to harm reduction initiatives are the zero tolerance policies favoured by the previous government. Zero tolerance policies aimed at criminalizing addicts do not work. We have seen the negative effects of these strategies on marginalized communities, especially among those who are over-incarcerated, like the indigenous and black communities. We have seen the negative stigma. We have seen misinformation based on anecdotes instead of scientific facts about drug addiction. People who are suffering from a condition they cannot control are treated as criminals instead of patients. This is fundamentally the wrong approach.

By contrast, harm reduction not only serves individuals affected by their own addiction but helps friends and families of addicts, and society as a whole. When we stop pushing addicts out onto the street and into alleyways, our communities become safer. When we provide a safe space for consumption, equipped with medical professionals, parents of addicts do not have to bury their children. When we shift our narrative to focus on providing health care for Canadians afflicted with a difficult condition, our society, as a whole, begins to heal.

This basic idea that harm reduction, in the form of safe, supervised consumption sites, can promote public health and safety was recognized by the Supreme Court in the Insite case.

With members' indulgence, I am going to put on my constitutional lawyer hat for a moment and discuss the Vancouver safe injection site that was at issue in the Insite case. I will not go into all the details, much as I would love to, but it is important to note that, in short, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously found in that case that the denial of a ministerial exemption by the previous government under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act was a violation of the charter, specifically the section 7 right to life and security of the person of Insite's clients. The Supreme Court, by way of remedy, unilaterally reinstated the exemption, allowing Insite's doors to remain open so the facility could continue to prevent unnecessary deaths on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The previous government's response to that decision, after some negative reaction on the part of the previous government, was to ramp up the number of conditions that had to be met for supervised consumption sites to be permitted to operate.

The government cannot do through the back door what it is not permitted to do constitutionally through the front door. The old Bill C-2, which is called, and we know the Conservatives had a penchant for these catchy names, the Respect for Communities Act, was an ideological response, not one based on evidence. It prompted observers, like the HIV/AIDS Legal Network, to note:

...Bill C-2, imposed near-insurmountable obstacles for supervised consumption services (SCS), such as Insite in Vancouver, despite ample evidence of the benefits of these health interventions. Not only have [supervised consumption sites] been shown to save lives, they are also cost-effective, as revealed by a new study conducted by the Toronto-based St. Michael's Hospital

If the members opposite want evidence of that study, I am happy to provide it.

We have heard such critiques, and we have responded as a government. Through Bill C-37, our government is taking the number of criteria that must be met to open a supervised site from 26 conditions, which to my mind is not intensive community involvement but is actually a barrier to providing authorization, and reducing it to five. We did not just dream up this list. We are using the very five criteria entrenched in paragraph 153 of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision, lest we be accused of perhaps not taking community consultation seriously, as some of the members opposite have opined.

Through Bill C-37, our government has responded to calls for a change in the legislation from organizations and people on the front lines who care for and treat drug addicts. They see the negative impact of a system imbalanced between public safety and public health.

Criticism of the bill has suggested that the government's new approach would turn society into an enabler of drug addiction, as opposed to a preventer. On the contrary, we will not stand idly by and enable Canadians to fatally overdose because we failed to act to provide them with safe spaces to receive health treatment.

We will prevent more people from dying by shifting our approach from criminalization to treatment with compassion. While we are shifting our approach, we are not diminishing the ability of law enforcement and the criminal justice system to enforce the law. We are shifting the treatment of addicts from punishment to treatment by treating addiction as a health issue. Critics of the bill forget that we are also increasing law enforcement's ability to prevent illegal substances from making it onto Canadian streets with changes to the Customs Act.

Bill C-37 would also further reinforce the commitment to consult with communities before making decisions that would directly impact them, such as the opening of safe consumption sites. Law enforcement, first responders, business owners, and residents down the street would all be consulted before the health minister delivered an evidence-based decision.

This bill is not revolutionary. We heard this in some of the earlier speeches. There are already over 90 safe consumption sites operating effectively worldwide, including two sites right here in Canada. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has completed extensive research, in collaboration with other prevention programs, on the effectiveness of harm reduction. Researchers discuss drug addition as a continuum, “where harm may occur at any level”.

Drug addiction is not black and white. It is not an all-or-nothing disease. If we continue to impose the rigid standards of Bill C-2, passed by the previous government, we will continue to deny communities and addicts the help, support, and life-saving services they desperately need and deserve. Balancing public safety and public health is not easy, but I am confident that Bill C-37 would help do just that. I am very proud to support legislation that puts the health and safety of Canadians at the forefront of our strategy, and I urge all members of the House to do the same.

[Dianne Lynn Watts, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think everyone would agree that addiction is a health issue. I think that has been out there for many years, and we support that avenue.

There are a few things here I would like to speak to.

First, I agree with the CBSA opening the mail, but we have a lot of drugs coming in from China. I would like to know what the strategy of the government is to stop that flow.

Second, I would like the member to outline and maybe point out in the legislation where the process of community consultations is laid out.

My third point, and I said this earlier to another member who had spoken, but I have list here of 12 adolescents who have died, and they were all in their early twenties. They were not addicts. They were adolescents who had taken fentanyl, and they have all died. I wonder what that strategy looks like.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague. I know that her riding, and all of the B.C. members of Parliament, have been directly affected by this issue.

In terms of what we are seeing with the transport by mail of substances like fentanyl and carfentanil, it is shocking and dramatic, and it demonstrates to us that there are new types of drugs that are being used and coming into our communities in vastly different ways. We are responding to that through this legislation by implementing changes to the Customs Act, which would allow the seizure and inspection of those types of mail packages, including packages as small as 30 grams. We know that a 30-gram standard letter envelope can contain enough fentanyl to kill 15,000 individuals, which is staggering by any stretch of the imagination.

In terms of what the community consultation looks like, we have heard debate in this chamber already. We have heard the response from the minister. It is important to note that one community consultation is one of the five factors that must occur. Second, the way that it would roll out is in a robust way, including first responders, residents, and individuals in the law enforcement community, so that it is comprehensive.

With respect to youth, the third part of the member's question stated that we need to be addressing the needs of youth in particular. I agree wholeheartedly. This government is focused on youth, including youth who are suffering the impacts of substance abuse. This will be a focus of our strategy going forward.

[Tracey Ramsey, NDP, Essex, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have to address the issue that the member for Vancouver Kingsway brought up earlier.

We are talking about lives. Every day that we sit here and debate, every day that we hold back on this decision, we are potentially impacting the lives of Canadians. We cannot sit any longer and not declare a national state of emergency. This is something that has been widely called for. We see that it has been called for by David Juurlink, who was the keynote speaker at the health minister's own opioid summit. B.C. health minister Terry Lake has also called for this, as well as stakeholders across Canada.

Canadians need access to funds for clinics in their region to address this. The only way we can do this is to declare a national state of public health emergency.

I want the member's opinion on whether or not he feels his government should declare it so that we can address this crisis and prevent any more Canadians from losing their lives.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for her comments and question, and for her advocacy in this chamber.

What we are dealing with is an absolute crisis. We are dealing with levels of death not seen before, which are staggering. As I mentioned in my opening statement, the number of deaths from overdose may exceed the number of deaths from automobile accidents, which is a staggering figure for us to understand and analyze.

On this side of the House, we are acting. We are firm in our commitment to take action as quickly as possible, which is why we have moved quickly to have this debate occur. We have moved quickly to have this legislation steered through committee, which is why the bill is now at third reading. We want to take concrete actions that will address the crisis in a manner that is as robust as possible.

As to whether this should be declared a proper emergency under the Emergencies Act, there is no precedent for that thus far. However, I am comforted by the actions, responses, and the leadership shown by the Minister of Health, herself a physician, in terms of taking actionable steps to implement a strategy that will help to save lives.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House today to talk about Bill C-37. Before I do, I hope you will allow me some latitude to wish my wife Lisa a happy Valentine's Day. We are 3,000 kilometres apart, but I am here doing the nation's business and she has given me her blessing to be here even though it is Valentine's Day. I want to thank her for all of her support in doing this job.

We are here to talk about a very serious piece of legislation, Bill C-37, an act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. First of all, Canadians should be aware that this debate is now taking place under time allocation, which means the government has decided it does not want to hear from any more members of Parliament on this issue. Not only does it not want to hear from affected communities on the issue of safe injection sites or safe consumption sites, as they are now being described, but it does not even want to hear from parliamentarians on this issue. That is a real shame.

We are sent here to represent our constituents. We are sent here to speak out on behalf of the people who elected us, and now the government has said it does not want to hear from us anymore. It only wants one more day of debate. It tried to have no debate whatsoever on the bill. Teaming up with the NDP, it tried to have the bill passed at all stages with no debate from any single member of Parliament. It is outrageous that this sort of important issue would be treated in that manner where not only do Liberals not want to hear from affected communities anymore, but they do not even want to hear from members of Parliament. I think that is the real issue here.

I heard today, and we all agree, that this is a health crisis. There are components of the bill that deal with the health crisis. The official opposition, the Conservative Party, advocated splitting the bill and passing those sections of the bill immediately. Again, this was rejected by the Liberal government and the third party, the NDP, because apparently they want to score political points on this issue. That is a real shame.

The points of the bill that all parties agree on include giving the Canada Border Services Agency more powers to search packages weighing less than 30 grams and ceasing the import of pill presses. We agree. The Conservative Party has agreed. Our health critic has spoken eloquently about that, and so have many on this side. This is a real measure that can be taken immediately to address this issue, but again, the government rejected our attempts to have this dealt with quickly.

We agree that we should grant the minister the authority to quickly and temporarily schedule and class new substances. That is a good idea. We could have done that in a single day with a single voice vote, had the government agreed to split the bill and move forward on the issues on which we could all agree, had the Liberals really wanted this to move ahead quickly, if they actually cared. We heard this again and again today from the government side: we need to act immediately, we need to act quickly, this is a health crisis. We agree. Why did they not agree with the Conservative amendment to split the bill and move forward those important measures immediately? It shows that there is politics at work here.

What we are concerned about is the community consultation. Quite frankly, I find it shocking that the government talks about consultation. It consulted on every other measure it has brought in. Whether it actually listened to that consultation, I think is a matter of debate. However, whether it is on new pipelines or any number of other pieces of legislation, the Liberals have delayed the pipeline decisions that would have got energy workers in Canada back to work, by up to a year.

They said the consultations that were done previously were not enough; they needed to set up a whole new process and double down on consultation because they needed social licence to move forward, whatever that means. So they draw out that process on and on and ignore the consultation that they actually had. They went with the Conservative process entirely when they made those decisions. However here, on something that affects communities, there is no consultation.

I heard it again. The minister has declared it a barrier. The previous Liberal speaker said that community consultations are a barrier to safe injection sites and we need to get rid of them.

Quite frankly, I think it is reasonable to expect that, when a safe injection site is proposed for any community, the chiefs of police are consulted, crime statistics are consulted, the mayor and council are consulted, the residents in the area where the site might be opened are consulted. As the member for Oshawa said, who is the official opposition health critic, the only way that safe injection sites are successful is when they have community buy-in, and we do not get community buy-in when we refuse to consult with the people who will be directly impacted.

We have heard many times about Insite in east Vancouver. Members of that community have said this is where they want this; this is okay in their community; they have integrated it into their community. Not all communities are east Vancouver. Some are going to take some time to get there, if they ever do.

However, we do not build consensus by refusing to consult with affected individuals. We do not build consensus by refusing to talk to the community.

As a member of Parliament, I am glad I had the opportunity to speak. I am sorry for the many dozens of MPs who will not be afforded the opportunity because of the heavy-handed tactics of the government. However, seeing this coming, seeing that the government was abandoning community consultations, I took the opportunity to consult with my community. I sent a brochure to every single household in my riding and asked two questions. The first question was whether they think communities should be consulted before a safe injection site is proposed in a community. Do they think that's reasonable? The second question was whether they think there should be a safe injection site in Chilliwack—Hope. I had an extremely robust response. Nearly 1,000 people have taken the time to respond, which is a very high number. It is more than double the number I usually get in responses.

To the question whether they believe that, without consultation, the government should be able to approve these, 76% of respondents said, no, they do not believe that should be possible to do. They do not see that as a barrier. They think it is essential that they be consulted before a safe injection site goes through.

To the second question, whether they believe safe injection sites should be located in Chilliwack—Hope, 68% said no and 32% said yes.

I will be sharing that information. I share it with the House. Once the final results are in, I will share that with the Minister of Health, with the government, because my constituents deserve the right to be consulted and heard. The real tragedy here is that we had an opportunity to act immediately on those measures that we could all agree on, but the government refused to do so.

The safe injection site model is what the debate is focused on here, but there is another great example that I want to highlight from British Columbia, as well, and again B.C. is on the leading edge of this. It certainly was troubling to hear the member for Vancouver Centre indicate in the media earlier this year that, maybe once this issue reaches the Manitoba-Ontario border, then this Liberal government will start to pay attention. Right now, it's just an issue for B.C., so they are not too worried about it. This is the most senior member of that caucus, I think. She has been here since 1993. She indicated that maybe when this becomes an issue in central Canada, then the government will start to pay attention. That is a pretty sad state

I want to talk about the St. Paul’s Rapid Access Addictions Clinic. It has been set up in a hospital setting where, when people come in and say that they want to kick their addiction, they are immediately walked upstairs and started on the process of detox right then and there. That is what we have not talked about enough today. Harm reduction is one of only four pillars in dealing with drug addiction. We have enforcement, we have treatment, and for too long the balance has shifted only to harm reduction. Until we have adequate treatment and detox beds for people to access, I think we are merely treating the symptom and not the underlying problem.

It is unfortunate that the government is cutting off debate on this issue. It is unfortunate it does not want to consult with communities. It is a real shame, and it is not the way the government should move forward on this important issue.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I respect the member's concerns over safe injection sites. This is not just going to pop up tomorrow, that all of a sudden the bill will pass and we will have 100 safe injection sites across the country. It is not to infer that the minister will not consult with the communities where these sites may end up being necessary. Let us face it, we are in a crisis situation right now in Vancouver. It is starting in Calgary and moving to Toronto. Who knows how many centres will be impacted by this existing crisis within our society. It behooves us to move as quickly as we can to deal with the crisis.

Therefore, I do not accept the member's premise that no consultation will take place. That is just not the way things work. They never have and they never will. Of course consultation is going to occur in order to make these sites beneficial to their communities. I imagine we will also consult with the municipal governments as well as the public safety officials within those centres to ensure these sites are established in a proper manner.

Does the member agree that a crisis exists, that we need to deal with this issue as soon as possible, and that this does not necessarily infer that consultations will not be conducted?

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the member will forgive me if I do not put a lot of weight in what he says. He says that he imagines there will be consultation. He asks us if we do not think there will be that consultation. The previous Conservative government, with the Respect for Communities Act, mandated it. We believed so strongly in consultation with communities on this issue that it was required.

When a government comes back and says that it will remove that requirement, to me it says it does not value that consultation. The Liberals have said repeatedly that they see this community consultation as a barrier to setting up future safe injection sites. If the consultations are to continue, why has the government removed the requirement to consult?

We would have passed the portions of the bill that did not relate to community consultations without a debate, immediately, but the government refused to do that.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Mr. Speaker, on the theme of consent, with respect to issues that are important enough, where there should be legally mandated consultation, does he think in those cases the consulted communities ought to have a veto over whether a project goes ahead?

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, certainly consultation should be required. The government needs to place a lot of weight on that. There might be cases where the health crisis itself necessitates certain action from the government. I am not arguing that.

What I am arguing is that no matter what, we should be asking the police, affected residents, the mayors, and councils what their opinions are on this issue and what the data shows. If we truly believe in evidence-based decision-making, which we hear repeatedly from the government, then we should be collecting the evidence. We should not be backing away from that requirement. That is why we cannot support the bill in its current form.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives place emphasis on all the things that should be done before a safe consumption site is put in place, such as looking at the evidence. In Vancouver, there has not been an increase in crime rates anywhere around the safe injection site at Insite. We have evidence that shows it saves lives.

More to the point, the so-called Respect For Communities Act was heavily loaded with conditions that were clearly put there for the intention of doing indirectly that which the Conservatives could not do directly, which was to defy the Supreme Court decision. The remaining conditions in the bill still require an assessment around crime. It still requires hearing from those who are for and against. The minister will look at all the factors in exercising discretion to allow this exemption.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Hope, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it perhaps is not surprising that the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands places a lot more trust in the Liberal government than I do. I do not trust it when it removes requirements from the bill to continue to consult. That is a clear indication of its priority, which is that Ottawa and the Liberal government know best, that we should just trust them and they ill take care of it for us.

The Conservatives trust their communities, the police, and their own neighbours to intervene and share their knowledge before any type of safe injection sites go forward. That is how one builds support for this sort of thing. One does not do it by denying consultation with communities.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in favour of Bill C-37, an act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

As we have heard from other members in the course of this debate, the illegal production and trafficking of controlled substances continues to be a significant problem in Canada. Our government is profoundly concerned about the current opioid crisis and the growing number of opioid overdoses and tragic deaths across the country.

Today, I will speak to the human aspect of this crisis, as well as some of Bill C-37's proposals to help address the health and safety risks associated with the diversion of drugs from the legitimate supply chain to the illicit market, one important source that contributes to this public health crisis in Canada.

It is critical that we ensure our drug control legislation, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, or CDSA, is modern, effective, and can better protect the health and safety of Canadians. This is an urgent priority for me and for our government.

In that respect, on December 12, 2016, the Minister of Health introduced Bill C-37 in the House of Commons. This bill supports our government’s commitment to drug policy that is comprehensive, collaborative, compassionate, and evidence-based, and which balances both public health and public safety for Canadians.

As you are all aware, this bill proposes significant changes related to supporting the establishment of supervised consumption sites as a key harm reduction measure. It also contains important elements which aim to ensure that controlled substances used for legitimate purposes are not being diverted to the illicit drug market.

We must work tirelessly to ensure that controlled substances used for legitimate purposes are not diverted to the illicit drug market, where they are deadly and have led to hundreds of tragic accidental drug overdose deaths, 914 last year in my province of British Columbia alone. That is 80% more than the previous year, fentanyl being the major contributor to this awful statistic.

The 914 are actually not statistics; they are people and they are us. There were 914 people who died in British Columbia from overdose deaths last year. They are human beings. Each life, in its own unique way, is interwoven with families and communities. They are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. They loved others and were loved, they belonged, they shared their aspirations, and they inspired their friends. They were people, like each of us, who, in their own way, enjoyed their lives, work, and challenges, who were powerful, contributing, and recognized, who were moved to make the world a better place. They are human beings.

Donald Charles Alexander Robertson, known as Alex by his friends, was caught off guard by this crisis. He passed away just over two weeks ago due to an accidental death caused by the opiate fentanyl. I chatted with Alex the evening before. He was a close friend and work colleague of my son Erik over many years. His life was interwoven with ours, his community with our community. In the words of my son Erik, Alex really was an amazing, capable, wise, joyous, humble, grounded, passionate, brilliant young man. He was an innovator and emerging leader who loved and was loved by many. His memories, teachings, and legacy will inspire many of us for decades to come.

Let us not detach ourselves in this debate and lose sight of the humanity of this crisis in the quotation of statistics. The victims of the fentanyl crisis, they are us. I want to express my deep condolences to Alex's parents and his sisters, Chrissy and Leslie, to his extended family, friends and co-workers. I hope the passing of Bill C-37 will be one plank in the foundation that we need to build to help eliminate the unintended exposure to deadly illicit opioids and the harm they cause over the years to come.

I would now like to focus specifically on how Bill C-37 would modernize Canada's legislation to reduce the risk of controlled substances like fentanyl from being diverted from legitimate producers, importers and distributors and secured by the black market. The measures being proposed to address gaps in Canada's drug framework are designed to respond to this evolving opioid crisis.

First, while targeted amendments have been made to the Controlled Drug and Substances Act since it came into force in 1997, the provisions of the act have not kept pace with the quickly evolving licit controlled substances industry and the illicit drug market. Many of the legislative amendments being proposed in Bill C-37 will modernize the CDSA to strengthen law enforcement. They also enhance the government's ability to monitor and promote compliance of the regulated parties who handle, buy, sell and transport controlled substances as legitimate products every day.

These improvements will bring the CDSA into alignment with other modern federal legislation designed to protect public health, and these changes will reduce the risks of these drugs being diverted from the legitimate supply chain to the illicit markets that are creating havoc in the lives of the accidental victims. Professional tools are proposed within the framework of the CDSA to improve the government's ability to incent compliance with the requirements for safe and secure procedures and practices under the CDSA and its regulations.

Second, Bill C-37 would establish the legislative framework to support the development of an administrative monetary penalty scheme, or an AMP. Once the new monetary penalties are in place, it will allow Health Canada to fine a regulated party for a violation of the provisions of the CDSA or its regulations, as defined in the regulations required to bring the scheme into effect.

Third, Bill C-37 proposes amendments which would allow military police to be designated as a police force under the CDSA. Currently, military police are not afforded the same protections as other law enforcement agencies in terms of handling controlled substances under the Police Enforcement Regulations.

In the proposed provisions of Bill C-37, military police could be designated as a police force, in their respective areas of jurisdiction, which would allow them to exercise a full range of investigative tools in the course of the investigation of drug-related crime.

These kinds of enforcement mechanisms are important to save lives.

A fourth aspect of the bill includes improving inspection authorities under the CDSA to bring them in line with authorities and other federal regulations.

Currently Health Canada inspectors are only able to inspect sites where authorized activities with controlled substances and precursors are taking place. Under Bill C-37, new authorities are being proposed to allow Health Canada inspectors to enter places where they have reasonable grounds to suspect that unauthorized activities with controlled substances or precursors are taking place.

There are many more aspects to the bill to better control substances, like fentanyl, which are potentially dangerous chemicals. It is urgent that the bill go forward for public health and safety. Bill C-37 is a comprehensive package with many other aspects that have been debated today and in the previous days.

There is more to be done but this is an important step along the way. It will make the CDSA a more comprehensive and compassionate act that encourages timely compliance, deters non-compliance, and ultimately contributes to the government's objective of protecting the health, safety, and the lives of Canadians, valuable lives, the lives of people like a bright, fun, caring 29-year-old man his friends knew as Alex.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I too share my concern for the victims of the opioid crisis. I am extremely concerned because this is a crisis that touches my riding and it touches all Canadians.

Our caucus was willing to support this legislation but for one clause. We agreed to pass it through at all three readings but for that one clause. We remain concerned about community consultation on the placement of sites.

The operations committee recently heard from Liberal members that they were going to recommend that the minister devolve the power of the final say over the placement of a community mailbox to a municipality. Why will the Liberals not agree that municipalities ought to be the final arbiters or at least have mandatory meaningful consultation on the placement of a safe consumption site?

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I take the member's expressions of care and compassion around the victims of this crisis in good faith but it was his government that over 10 years set up roadblocks in the guise of community consultation that prevented many communities from being able to go forward with safe consumption sites that would have saved lives in their communities.

I am pained to hear that a clause is deemed a reason to not support this important law that needs to go ahead quickly as a foundational building block to save lives.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her intervention in this debate.

I would like to know if she thinks this measure is a happy medium between too many constraints and the total absence of constraints with respect to opening new supervised consumption sites.

Obviously, we need rules around setting up supervised consumption sites. However, as we have seen in the past, too many constraints is not necessarily a good thing because that can get in the way of protecting public health.

Can my colleague comment on the attempt to find a happy medium between the two extremes on this issue?

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my NDP colleague for his question.

We want a framework that prevents Canadians from dying accidentally because of illegal drug use. The provinces and communities have work to do. Bill C-37 must not be the end of the story. This is a very important initiative that will remove obstacles and support Canadians' health and safety.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend my condolences to the hon. member for Vancouver Quadra for the loss of Alex, a young man she has known for many years and a young man who was friends with her own children. My personal condolences to the member.

Does my hon. colleague feel that her government and the Minister of Health plan other measures to assist young people who are caught in this fentanyl crisis so that they can deal with their addiction and stay off drugs?