Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for talking about mental health and addiction. I was with my new friend Mark, who has had his own recovery journey of living with addictions. He lived at a therapeutic treatment centre, long-term care that gave him the complex supports he needed.
I joined Mark on Sunday morning because there were 38 people sleeping in doorways in Port Alberni. They have nowhere to live. We had coffee, hot chocolate and some food with them on Sunday morning, and everyone said they cannot get anywhere without help.
The member talked about a way out. They need a way out, and the rapid housing initiative the Liberals announced, the 3,000 units, is not even a drop in the bucket. There are 360,000 Canadians who are homeless on any given day.
We have not seen any units in Port Alberni. We have an application in, but rural communities are being forgotten. People are dying. The federal government needs to step up instead of downloading onto the provinces.