Mr. Speaker, shameful would characterize 10 years of Conservative inaction, followed by a year and a half of Liberal foot dragging, followed by three months of Senate stalling, studying the exact same questions that were debated and rejected at committee, while people continue to die at rates way beyond other countries. In my community of Nanaimo, 13 people died just in the first three months of this year alone, and 28 people died last year. We are losing people at the same rate as Vancouver.
The west coast has been hit very hard by the opioid crisis for all kinds of reasons, such as over-prescription, access to west coast shipping, untreated pain, improper way of supporting people with PTSD. The causes are myriad, but the solutions have fallen completely to the front line: ambulance, paramedics, firefighters, social workers, NGOs that train people in naloxone. If the House cannot get it together and actually remove the barriers to the solutions that have been identified, that is shameful.
Specifically, the member is talking about the community consent amendment that the Senate has brought, an idea that was rejected at committee. Specifically the legislation already requires the Minister of Health to consider expressions of community support when they consider licensing a new site. Why on earth would the member continue to propose and support the Senate amendment, which just gets in the way of the approval of treatment facilities for addicted people?