Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table a petition on behalf of residents of the Comox Valley, from Courtenay and Cumberland.
This petition is about the 12,500 preventable deaths due to the opioid and fentanyl crisis taking place across our country. The tabling of this petition could not be more timely, as tomorrow many of the signatories to this petition will be protesting the closure of the overdose protection site in Courtenay.
The petitioners are calling on the government to declare the current opioid overdose and fentanyl poisoning crisis a national public health emergency. They are calling for resources to support overdose protection sites, support treatment, support tackling this issue with a clean source. They want the government to make sure it is under the Emergencies Act in order to manage and resource it properly, with the aim to reduce, eliminate and prevent deaths; to reform current drug policies to decriminalize personal possession; and to create with urgency and immediacy a system to provide safe, unadulterated access to substances so people who use substances experimentally, recreationally or chronically are not at imminent risk of overdose due to a contaminated source.