Mr. Speaker, I have the honour and privilege to table this petition today. It is around the opioid crisis, where over 15,000 people have died from a preventable opioid overdose resulting from fentanyl-poisoned sources.
It is timely that I table this petition as we have seen a 93% increase in indigenous overdose deaths, including a good friend of mine's son this week in Nuu-chah-nulth territory, so this is really touching and meaningful to me.
The petitioners ask that the government take action and declare the current overdose crisis an emergency under the Emergencies Act in order to manage and resource it, reform current drug policy, and create with urgency and immediacy a system to prevent and provide safe, unadulterated access to substances so that people who use substances experimentally, recreationally or chronically are not at imminent risk of overdose due to a contaminated source.