Mr. Chair, I am very surprised to hear that any province or territory in the country would leave federal dollars on the table for treatment.
However, I know my hon. colleague is a physician and is committed to an evidence-based and scientific approach to this. I sit on the health committee and I moved the motion at committee to study the opioid crisis. We have heard from stakeholders across the board. Police, firefighters, nurses, physicians, addiction specialists and psychologists have all come to the same conclusion, and that is the same conclusion the member came to, which is we must put ideology aside and base our position on evidence. Their conclusion is that decriminalization and regulation of drugs is the answer to at least stopping the tainted street supply.
The member commented upon the very successful approach to supervised injection sites when we had the tainted heroin supply 20 or 25 years ago. We see patterns and waves of tainted drugs, but what is foundational is the fact that as long as we have a criminalized drug culture in the country, we drive people underground, drug addicts get their drugs on the street and we have deaths.
Does the member not agree with the president of the Canadian Medical Association, the chiefs of police and every medical professional whom I have heard at the health committee, that it is time for the government to put ideology aside and look seriously at decriminalization and regulation of drugs? Does she agree with that?