Debates of May 29th, 2024

Department of Health—Main Estimates, 2024-25

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, has anybody in the office met with representatives from Fair Price Pharma?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, no.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the lobby registry says that on September 15, 2023, representatives from the minister's office met with Fair Price Pharma. Can she tell the House if that is true or not?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge, no one from my office has met with Fair Price Pharma.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister have any idea what is going on in her office and who has met with Fair Price Pharma?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge, no one on my team has met with Fair Price Pharma.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, this is an Order Paper question for the government, so either the government is not being forthwith with the House or the minister has no idea what is going on in her office.

Has anybody from her ministry met with any representatives from Fair Price Pharma? I do not know how long we will have to do this for.

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, to my knowledge, my predecessor, then minister Bennett, met with Fair Price Pharma, but I am not sure what member of her team met with it.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, on September 15, 2023, the minister was occupying the office, and the government said that the participation in that meeting was by the minister's office.

Was she briefed about the meeting on September 15, 2023, when she was minister, with the representatives from Fair Price Pharma?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I believe I answered the question previously. I will reiterate that I have not met with Fair Price Pharma. If a member of my team has met with Fair Price Pharma, the member already has the answer.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, if the minister is not planning to fund the so-called safe supply of heroin, why is anybody in the ministry, her office or her predecessor's office meeting with Fair Price Pharma?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have not met with Fair Price Pharma. Our prescribed alternative programs and the drugs distributed are paid for and prescribed by the provinces.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we are clearly not getting a straight answer from the minister, so I will move on to something that she probably can answer and should answer.

She is a minister from Toronto. She had a failed experiment in British Columbia that she had to pull back because she was forced to by the radical NDP government there. Will she rule it out in Toronto for good, forever?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member does not seem to appreciate the importance of collaborative work between the federal government and jurisdictions in addressing the overdose crisis. We will continue to work with all jurisdictions, as per their requests, on what we can do to save lives.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is a yes or no question. Is it yes or no?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government will always work with its provincial and municipal partners to ensure that we—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The hon. member for Thornhill.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like the record to show that, after the next election, if the Liberals are elected, they would legalize in Toronto in the same way as they did in British Columbia.

The minister basically just said yes.

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we do not work in hypotheticals; we work with facts.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, my questions will be for the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. To address the opioid crisis, the government launched a pilot project a few years ago. Could the minister tell us in which province this pilot project was carried out?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, the question was not clear. Could I ask the member to repeat it? I will respect the time.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, which province requested a pilot project to deal with the opioid crisis?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member well knows that B.C. requested an exemption.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the answer is the province of British Columbia. Did the province make a request in recent weeks to review the terms of the pilot project, yes or no?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, from the outset, a commitment was made for the pilot program in British Columbia to be monitored, assessed and amended as needed. That is why it is a pilot program.