Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question and for her interest in this issue which is, as she mentioned, a real Canadian public health crisis.
The figures remain chilling, as the number of opioid-related deaths continues to rise. This crisis represents a new type of public health challenge for Canada. Before, urgent public health interventions dealt mainly with infectious disease outbreaks, which have a more defined beginning and end. The opioid overdose situation is complex. We will need time and we will have to work with a number of partners to address this crisis.
The Government of Canada recognizes that there have been calls for the declaration of a national public health emergency. Action has been taken on a national level and in partnership with provinces and territories, all without the need to declare a public welfare emergency under the Emergencies Act. Current federal legislation would not confer any additional powers through such a declaration.
We have responded to the crisis with major new spending and new legislation. We have also fast-tracked new regulations. For example, we have allocated over $100 million in new federal money to the Canadian drugs and substances strategy and provided emergency funding to British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba.
We also passed new legislation to make it harder to bring fentanyl into the country and to streamline the application process for supervised consumption sites. We have approved more than 25 new supervised consumption sites, which are saving lives every day.
Recently, the government announced the implementation of drug-checking services and approved their use in supervised consumption sites. Temporary overdose prevention sites have also been approved for Ontario, the Minister of Health having deemed the province's public health needs urgent.
We are also reducing regulatory barriers to treatment. For instance, Health Canada is allowing the import of medications for urgent public health needs that are not yet authorized in Canada.
We also supported a pilot project for the delivery of safer alternative treatments to replace often fatal illegal drugs. Our government is continuing to work closely with its provincial and territorial partners on this.
For example, Canada's chief public health officer co-chairs the special advisory committee on the epidemic of opioid overdoses, which continues to be a key mechanism for collaboration among the senior public health officials leading crisis response efforts in their respective jurisdictions.
The committee, which has been active since December 2016, has made significant strides toward improving rapid information sharing about opioid-related deaths. The committee is now producing quarterly reports about those deaths, and national data have been released three times so far. The latest figures are slated for release in the spring.
The committee has also played a key role in fostering collaboration between various public safety, public health, and municipal officials within jurisdictions to advance collective efforts.
The federal government has placed public health officers in provinces and territories, upon request, to support jurisdictions in strengthening their data and surveillance systems.
The environment in which we live and work is in constant flux, so the government is continually reviewing and strengthening its ability to prevent, detect, and respond to public health incidents. To that end, the Minister of Health committed to acting rapidly in accordance with her mandate to review Canada's public health emergency management framework together with the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
In undertaking this review, the Minister of Health has asked Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada to identify any additional measures or powers that would help her address the current crisis and any similar crisis in the future.
However, our work is not done.
From knocking down regulatory hurdles to improving access to treatment for all Canadians and eliminating stigmatization—