Madam Chair, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his passionate work at the health committee and the work that he took on with the health committee when a study was done of the opioid crisis.
I want to ask my colleague to reflect a bit on decriminalization. Decriminalization does not ensure a safe drug supply. Decriminalization does not make people seek treatment. Decriminalization does not solve the stigma problem that leads to people not moving forward.
Thus, the government is responding through evidence-based programs. Portugal's former head of drug policy has said that “decriminalization is not a silver bullet” to solve this crisis.
We are restoring harm reduction. We have opened supervised consumption sites. We are investing over $200 million in treatment centres, much of which has gone to British Columbia. We are fast-tracking regulatory action to cut red tape.
My question to my hon. colleague is this. Does he not agree that harm reduction and moving forward to encourage people to seek treatment as well as taking some of these other strategies are the building blocks to help resolve this crisis?