Debates of Feb. 8th, 2022

The Opioid Crisis in Canada

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to say a big thanks to the member for Courtenay—Alberni for bringing his private member's bill forward.

Vancouver East has been trying to raise this issue for many years now. In fact, I still recall the late Bud Osborn, who spearheaded the harm reduction approach and called for decriminalization decades ago. VANDU in my riding has been very active on this issue and has been continuing in pursuit of it, and Moms Stop the Harm has been very active in highlighting this issue, but yet, so many years later, the government continues to refuse to take action.

Why does the Liberal government refuse to acknowledge the lives that have been lost as a result of the opioid crisis, refuse to declare a national health emergency and refuse to grant the City of Vancouver the exemption that it is seeking? Why does it not bring forward a bill that will save lives?

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Speaker, my colleague has been at ground zero of this fight from the beginning. They fought for Insite, and not a single person has died at Insite in its 20 years. It is remarkable

It is because politicians are so worried about votes. They are so worried about getting re-elected instead of doing the right thing. That would be my answer. I also believe that these lives do not matter to those politicians. It has to change, and people are holding their politicians to account when they are ignoring expert recommendations from their own top public health officials, from their own police chiefs and from their own family members.

No one is untouched by this, no one in this country, especially in the province I come from. There is not an MP in this House who has not received a phone call from a constituent who has lost a mom or a dad or a daughter or a son. Everybody has been impacted.

It has been six years and 25,000 lives. Why are we not responding in the way we responded to COVID? We have demonstrated that we can respond.

I want to thank my colleague, and I will work with her and all members of this House to move quickly, because 20 people are going to die today, and more tomorrow. Every day that we wait on implementing these common-sense reforms, people will die.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Courtenay—Alberni for his powerful statement, but moreover his powerful actions. I thank the member for tabling this critically important piece of legislation, Bill C-216. This bill has the framework to finally address the drug poisoning crisis like the crisis it is: a public health care crisis.

This crisis is killing Canadians, 20,000 of them in the last five years. This is truly an emergency, and it is one the government can no longer ignore. This crisis affects all Canadians, but in particular young people, indigenous people, Black people and people of colour. This crisis is affecting Canadians unequally, and it is not by coincidence or chance. It is because of the historic and ongoing violence and systemic racism that has existed and continues to exist in Canada today, violence like the residential schools that existed until 1996; violence like the sixties scoop that tore apart thousands of indigenous families, including my own; violence like the government's ongoing apprehension of indigenous children; and violence like the underfunding of critical services, such as providing clean water.

Many of my fellow indigenous people now live in urban centres; more than 50%. My constituency of Edmonton Griesbach is home to some of the largest urban indigenous populations in Canada, and this reality could not be more visible. What many of my neighbours and I see in the community is the large number of folks living without homes, being continually harassed and criminalized and ultimately incarcerated. They are then thrown right back out on the streets with a criminal record, struggling to find housing and employment and left feeling hopeless.

Just this weekend, I was out in my community with a group called Boots on the Ground handing out care packages of naloxone kits, coffee and other much-needed items. Within about an hour, we had given out over 200 packages. I can tell members first-hand the need to address this public health care crisis in my constituency is great and urgent. This crisis falls directly at the feet of governments, both Conservative and Liberal, that have time after time ignored the calls to action by health professionals, indigenous leaders and harm reduction groups like Moms Stop the Harm and Bear Clan Patrol.

We cannot treat a public health care crisis with arrests and incarceration. Health care workers know this, substance users know this and my constituents know this. Groups like the Alberta Medical Association have said this. City councils in Alberta are calling for this.

Decades of history and evidence from around the world show us that the current approach of criminalization simply does not work; it only leads to more harm and deaths. Health Canada's own experts know this. Last year, its expert task force on substance use published a groundbreaking report about alternatives to criminal penalties for simple possession of controlled substances.

The task force, which is made up of some of Canada's leading experts, described the federal government's current policies as follows:

Current public policies on substance use, and criminalization chief among them, are part of a vicious cycle that is fed by and continues to feed inaccurate, stigmatizing perceptions of people who use drugs. Canada’s current policies are based on an outdated and deeply problematic position, which the Task Force members reject, that devalues and dehumanizes people who use drugs by labelling them as immoral, “addicts”, or weak.

Health Canada's experts do not hold back about the racist realities of Canada's drug policies. The report goes on to say:

The legislation criminalizing drug possession is part of historical and ongoing structural racism and continues to have disproportionate effects on Indigenous and Black populations, which are more often targeted for prosecution for simple drug offenses.

These are only two of the reasons the task force unanimously recommended that Health Canada scrap all criminal penalties for simple possession.

I want to conclude by thanking those on the front lines of this crisis every day, groups like Boots on the Ground Edmonton, Water Warriors YEG, the Bear Clan Patrol and Moms Stop the Harm. They are shouldering the burden of this public health care crisis because governments refuse to do what is right.

This is our chance to rectify it, to undo some of that harm and to set a better path forward. Governing is about choices. With Bill C-216, we are giving the House and the government a choice, an opportunity to listen to the experts, and a chance to do what is right and save lives.

We can choose to end the war on drugs, and I urge all members of this House, whether government or opposition, to make the right choice and pass Bill C-216 into law.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Edmonton Griesbach, like me, has a riding with a large indigenous population. I wonder how much he thinks the answer to the opioid problem is a matter of directly dealing with opioids and how much of the answer involves dealing with the underlying socio-economic inequality, which is certainly part of the problem and fuels the crisis.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague's question strikes to the core of the issue, which is the long-term, historic and ongoing systemic discrimination, particularly against indigenous people, that has led to this unfair outcome.

Indigenous people have been hit the hardest in the opioid crisis, in the mental health crisis and even in the crisis of COVID-19. We have to address things like residential schools and the sixties scoop in order to get a true grasp of the issues facing indigenous people today.

[Mike Morrice, Green, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I particularly appreciated your choice to quote directly from the report of the expert task force on substance use. I was curious if you would be open to sharing more with the House on recommendation no. 7, which reads, “The Task Force strongly urges Health Canada to respect the sovereign rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada and support their governments in providing appropriate prevention and treatment approaches.”

Would you be open to sharing your advice with parliamentarians on how to ensure that this is brought to fruition?

[The Speaker, Liberal, Anthony Rota]

I would remind hon. members to place their questions through the Chair and not directly to each other.

The hon. member for Edmonton Griesbach.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, how we respect indigenous people is a matter of how we understand indigenous people. Part of the understanding is knowing that indigenous people are on the front lines every single day protecting one another, protecting communities and doing what we can with the resources we have.

When we make mention of the things the report calls for us to do better, it is respecting that indigenous people have a right to ensuring health care is provided and that the nation itself has the tools to provide that service in a culturally appropriate way.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik Uqaqtittiji.

The member has made a powerful statement. First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia has shown that indigenous people are five times more likely to experience an overdose and three times more likely to die than other residents. This demonstrates that Canada's colonial efforts to “take the Indian out of the child” continue to have impacts on the mental health of Inuit, first nations and Métis. We have also heard many times in this House about the over-incarceration rate that exists among Inuit, first nations and Métis.

Could the member expand on how criminalizing drugs contributes to the ongoing cycle of violence that indigenous peoples have suffered in Canada?

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member for Nunavut and I have a lot in common. Part of what we have in common is our fight and pursuit for indigenous justice. When we think about what indigenous justice in Canada looks like today, we cannot go any further than looking at our criminal justice system. We cannot do this work right without bringing those who are most affected along with us.

Our nations are in pain, and this no coincidence. It is the government's own doing through the Indian Act, in large part, as well as the discriminatory policies that look at indigenous people as wards and the existing policies that continue to harm indigenous families, such as the CFS system. These systems are still in place today, and they continually disenfranchise and discriminate against indigenous people, resulting in their contribution to the cycles of violence that our people find themselves in. These cycles of violence come with painful outcomes for our own family members.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, I am sharing my time tonight with the member for Thunder Bay—Rainy River. I am joining the House today from the Robinson-Superior Treaty territory. I am actually on Fort William first nation as we speak.

We are deeply saddened and concerned by the number of people losing their lives because of opioids and addiction. It is a serious problem that affects every region of the country.

Before COVID, Canada, like other countries, was in the midst of an opioid crisis, but the pandemic has made this crisis even more acute. The reasons are many, but the results are devastating for so many people and families across this country. All too often it is indigenous people who bear a disproportionate burden of grief in this crisis.

Last week I spoke with Chief Evan Yassie of the Sayisi Dene First Nation following the tragic passing of a young community member. Chief Yassie rightly describes the situation as an epidemic within a pandemic.

In 1956 the Sayisi Dene community was forced to relocate. What did that mean for his relatives? It meant leaving an area rich with tradition, natural foods and safety. It meant being dropped off at a new location with less food, little to no shelter, and no way for the community to manage a looming and brutal winter. The community experienced this relocation trauma not once but twice, and as Chief Yassie told me, many people died of exposure, grief or trauma.

Their community is located in the far northern part of Manitoba, with no all-season roads. Resources are flown in, and in the winter, for increasingly few weeks, resources are transported on winter roads. The remote nature of this community means that gas has had to be rationed as they await this year's winter road, and the rationing has had direct impacts on their ability to care for each other, to conduct wellness checks and to support each other.

Despite these challenges and their most recent loss, Chief Yassie points out that, like other indigenous, Inuit and Métis communities, access to culturally informed mental health services that provide wrap-around care and re-connection to culture and the land are critically important. We talked about the fact that we cannot find our way out of this crisis unless we reduce the demand, indeed the need for substance use as a way to self-treat deep and intergenerational trauma.

It is our duty to acknowledge that the act of colonization through displacement, discrimination and systemic racism has caused intergenerational trauma for indigenous peoples, and that issues such as remoteness cannot stand in the way of doing everything that we can to reconcile. To reconcile means that we must move forward on equality, on truth, on self-determination and on services that are not eurocentric but rather designed by and for indigenous peoples with sufficient funding and supports in place so that people can access them.

I am someone who has worked on the issue of mental health and substance use for a long time. I am also someone who loves people who use substances, and I have lost a few. I am critically aware that there is no one approach or program that can help. Prevention, for example, starts early. It is things like decent housing and education opportunities, skills training and access to culturally relevant supports. It is making sure that kids get the best start they can. It is working across agencies, governments and sectors. Of course, it takes all of us, at every level, in every community, and it means that we help each other, and we lean in to listen.

My department is working closely with first nations, Inuit, and Métis partners to improve service delivery. What does that mean? It means supporting better and more access to culturally grounded wrap-around care. It means treatment with medication, traditional practices, on-the-land healing, case management, counselling and aftercare. It means making sure that federally funded programs support organizations with flexibility to support people in ways that will help them stay connected.

One of our government's first actions in 2015 was to restore harm reduction supports as a key pillar in addressing the opioid crisis. When someone dies of an overdose, it is too late. We must do everything we can to help people stay alive as they work towards recovery, and recovery is possible.

That is why another key element of our approach is collaboration. Everyone is affected, and partners in health, in justice and at every level of government must put people and families at the centre. We must all ask what more we can do to support people to find and stay in appropriate treatment, to support families and groups like Moms Stop the Harm, and to help each other get through this crisis together.

As we know, emotional trauma must be understood and treated as a risk factor so that fewer people end up facing neglect and isolation.

A crisis of this scale requires a response from society as a whole, including representatives from all levels of the community and government. It is of the utmost—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

I apologize, but we have to go to questions and comments.

The hon. member for Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Madam Chair, a report that was produced in my riding, the community drug and alcohol strategy for one of my counties, stated that mental health and addiction services are spread across many different ministries and funding bodies, both provincially and federally, and are significantly underfunded, relative to the federal spending on physical health.

Individuals and families seeking help to address mental health, substance abuse and other needs such as housing are required to navigate a complicated system of supports and reconcile conflicting policies, information, attitudes and options.

Knowing the role for the minister, and as well with respect to indigenous services and having two reserves in my riding, what steps has the federal Liberal government taken to consolidate responsibility in making access support easier for all vulnerable Canadians?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, the federal government has an important role to play in supporting provinces and territories to deliver on their responsibilities for health care, including mental health and substance use care. Beyond that, we also have an important responsibility to provide support for first nations and indigenous communities and ensure they have the right supports as they choose and that those supports are appropriately funded, and designed and led by indigenous people.

We will continue to work with all partners to make sure we can increase capacity for communities to support people who use substances and their families who love them.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Madam Chair, the war on drugs is now universally regarded as an utter failure. It has wasted billions of dollars and hurt millions of people. We now know that criminalizing drug use and addiction not only does not work, it adds to the harm and actually makes things worse. Leaving the toxic supply of drugs to street level criminals is literally killing thousands of Canadians every year and, in fact, more every year since the Liberals have been in power since 2015.

Given these facts, and the fact that the major source of criminalization is federal law, why would this member's government not respect the evidence and act now to decriminalize drug use, create a regulated, low-barrier safe supply and make prevention, education and universal access to treatment the policy of her government?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, I think the member opposite knows that is exactly the journey we have been on. We have been working with provinces and territories on making sure people can access safer supply. In fact, just a few months ago, prior to being the Minister of Indigenous Services, I was so pleased to announce funding for four safer supply projects in British Columbia.

Of course, this relies on those strong partnerships with provinces, territories and, indeed, the entire health care sector. We need to support providers so that they feel comfortable and safe to prescribe safer supplies for people who use substances. The federal government has been doing that in partnership with provinces and territories.

Finally, we must note that, in fact, it is not one approach that is going to help save lives and stop this tragedy. It is going to be multiple approaches, as appropriate and as determined by people in communities.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Chair, for the last hour and a half we have been discussing proposals that seem to reflect all of us a bit.

I have a question for the minister. We are talking about a diversion process for simple possession with the support of frontline health services. This support would change everything and allow for training or detox treatment, an appropriate option in exchange for dropping charges.

I would like to hear her thoughts, because that is exactly what is happening right now in Montreal and Nunavik.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Madam Chair, there is a lot of work happening at various levels of government to consider decriminalization. As I said earlier in response to other colleagues, I believe that there is no one perfect approach. It will be multiple things that will help people who use substances and that will help their families.

The first thing we have to do, and I fully agree with my colleagues in this regard, is to treat people who use substances with respect and compassion. There is no path forward if we do not get that right.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Madam Chair, I am happy to speak to this issue, an issue that I have been involved with one way or another for about 30 years or more.

As a long-time emergency room doctor, many of those years in Thunder Bay but other places as well, I have seen a lot of overdoses. ICU doctors who work in Thunder Bay and also work in a lot of other places tell me that Thunder Bay is second only to Vancouver in terms of the number of people going to the ICU as a result of overdoses.

A few years ago in the Thunder Bay emergency room, we started to notice something different with overdoses. I remember someone coming in unconscious and because of his pinpoint pupils and his slow breathing, I figured he was a narcotics overdose, so I gave him Narcan or Naloxone and sure enough he woke up. After he woke up he asked what happened to him. I said he overdosed on narcotics and he said that he did not because he was smoking crack.

Drug dealers have started putting fentanyl and at times carfentanyl, which is the veterinary drug equivalent, which is far stronger, into all kinds of other drugs. People are getting hooked on narcotics and overdosing, not even knowing that it is narcotics they are doing.

When narcotic overdoses make it to the emergency room, they usually are okay, but a lot of people unfortunately do not make it to the emergency room. They are either pronounced dead in their house or they arrive VSA, vital signs absent. We try to resuscitate them and unfortunately we cannot.

Besides knowing about this problem from my position as an emergency room doctor, I am also familiar with it from my personal experiences. I know a lot of people who have family members and friends who passed away because of overdoses, kids who are growing up without a parent because of an overdose, or parents who lost a child because of an overdose.

I also know about this problem because, going door to door in two successive campaigns, a number of people told me about people they lost, usually their children. I know as a parent there is nothing worse than losing a child. Although I would say that certainly it is probably equally as bad for a child to lose a parent.

I also know the extent to which drug addiction, mental health, homelessness and crime are intertwined. Last year on the INAN committee on which I sat, we had several women tell us of the problem that indigenous women from farther north communities have when they come to Thunder Bay and they meet some guy with flashy clothes and a flashy car who invites them to a party to try drugs. They try drugs and they get addicted to drugs, and then they are asked to go into prostitution to pay for the price of those drugs.

Although our government has done a lot to address addictions, mental health and the opioid crisis, I do not think we have been as successful as we would like to be. Unfortunately, I do not know of any jurisdiction in the world that has been really successful in addressing this problem.

As a doctor, we spend a lot of years treating people with overdoses and hopefully maybe saving a few of them. I know the fix I provided in the emergency room was a temporary fix. People would often overdose again, so what is the answer? As a long-time doctor, I think one of the most important things to say as a doctor when we do not know is “I don't know”. I certainly say I do not know what the answer is to the opioid problem, but I do know that we need to do better.

I also know that there are many people in Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario working tirelessly to find solutions on a case-by-case basis, and I really commend them for all their hard work. I would also like to make special mention of one group in my riding, a group who will not take no for an answer and have made it their mission to make a difference and that is Team DEK. DEK stands for Dayna Elizabeth Karle, who died due to an accidental overdose this past September. Her mother, Carolyn, and a bunch of like-minded determined women established Team DEK with the goal of establishing a long-term addiction treatment program for women in Thunder Bay, both indigenous and non-indigenous. This project has a lot of support both in Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario.

It is really great to see on the issue of the opioid crisis all parties feeling passionately about this. Although we may have different views as to what the best answer to this problem is, hopefully we can leave partisan politics aside and not let it prevent us from considering all options because the only thing that really matters is preventing more needless deaths.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Madam Chair, first, I give my thanks for all the member's work on the Afghan file over the last year and a bit. I know he has been a big advocate.

I want to talk about solutions and get his take from another rural riding. In my riding of Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound a harm reduction outreach pilot project called SOS, supportive outreach services, is under way in Owen Sound and Hanover. The project is a collaboration among various community partners and is operated through in-kind contributions from partner agencies. Grey County paramedic services has been instrumental in moving this forward, and the project provides wraparound health and social services to individuals who experience barriers to accessing traditional health services. This project just began in October and ends this April, and early outcomes show that it is quite successful in connecting the vulnerable community members to those necessary resources.

In the member's opinion, for programs like this that are coming up with innovative solutions for particularly rural Canada, should the federal government be providing more support to them and more investment, and leveraging the lessons learned form these types of projects?

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Madam Chair, I certainly agree that we ought to be doing more for this. I have to point out that I think our government has done quite a bit in terms of addressing the opioid problem. Just since the pandemic, there has been $4.5 billion in top-ups to the transfers to the provinces; $100 million for mental health interventions for the people most severely affected by the pandemic; $500 million toward people suffering mental health problems, homelessness and substance abuse; and $66 million was announced in a recent budget for 30 new substance use and addiction programs.

However, I think the real difference is made at the grassroots level, and it is all those people who are working at that level, tirelessly, to try to find a solution where often solutions are not easy to find, who really contribute the most. It is not just all about—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Edmonton Griesbach.

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Madam Chair, I want to thank my hon. colleague for making mention of two really important parts, and I am hoping he can comment on them.

First, he was not sure about some jurisdictions that had done this before. Portugal, in 2000, was one of the jurisdictions that did this, and we have seen some record results in making things safer for them. We know those kinds of results could exist here in Canada. In regard to the second portion, making sure we have a non-partisan review of this issue and a non-partisan solution, I think that is a really good and encouraging statement to make.

My colleague from Courtenay—Alberni tabled Bill C-216. Would the member consider voting in favour of this important bill?

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for Edmonton Griesbach for his reference to Portugal, where I believe they have decriminalized drug use. Certainly, from what I know, as a result of that decriminalization there has been some improvement in the problem in Portugal, so I think it is certainly an interesting case study. I cannot say I know enough about decriminalization to give any definitive answer about it, but I do think it is something we ought to be seriously considering.

As for Bill C-216, I admit I have not read it, but I look forward to reading it.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Chair, I have a simple question for my colleague, who has expertise in the health field.

Earlier, I spoke about interventions to prevent overdoses. One response to overdoses was to make naloxone universally and freely available. In Quebec for example, firefighters, paramedics and police officers use it to save lives.

I would like to hear my colleague's views on this universal, free access to naloxone.