Mr. Speaker, on October 17, 2017, I rose in the House to ask a question about opioid overdoses.
I want to remind members that almost 3,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2016. Unfortunately, these terrible numbers will continue to rise, as the Public Health Agency of Canada estimates that the number of deaths caused by opioids in 2017 will exceed 4,000.
Those are the statistics. In 2017, a staggering 4,000 Canadians died from an opioid overdose, including an unprecedented 1,400 in British Columbia alone.
However, this is neither an opioid crisis nor an overdose crisis. It is a crisis of social isolation exacerbated by a bad drug policy.
I believe that it is high time the government addressed this serious situation by putting in place an effective response that will resolve this very serious public health crisis.
For several months now experts have been calling on the government to declare a state of emergency and acknowledge the gravity of this crisis. The magnitude of this crisis cannot be ignored. Last year, in the City of Vancouver alone, the number of opioid overdoses increased by 43% compared to 2016. In other words, 335 people died, or roughly one death a day.
In Quebec, the crisis is growing as well. Recently, a 22-year old young man from the Eastern Townships died after ingesting a cocktail of powerful synthetic opioids.
I want to thank all the organizations and frontline workers in our country who have to deal with the major issue that is the opioid crisis. I want to commend the incredible work of the Maison l'Alcôve treatment centre in my riding. Since 1985, that centre has been working with and treating people with alcohol and drug addictions. Maison l'Alcôve is an addiction treatment centre with in-patient accommodation for adults with substance abuse or gambling problems. They do incredible and important work. I sincerely thank them for it.
Front-line workers and partners all tell us that we must work together to get to the root of addiction by offering housing with support services and combatting homelessness by providing access to essential social services.
The mayor of Vancouver recently asked this government to create a national strategy in response to the magnitude of the crisis. Although many steps have already been taken, mainly at the municipal level, to prevent opioid overdoses, there is still a lot of work to be done.
That is why I am calling on the government to implement an ambitious pan-Canadian action plan, as called for by a task force launched by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, representing 13 cities, including Montreal, Calgary, and Toronto.
When will the government heed these cities' calls, or should I say cries, for help? The time has come to do everything we can to contain this crisis before it becomes a national epidemic.
Jagmeet Singh has proposed the only credible solution: treating addiction as a health care problem and not as a criminal justice problem.