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.