Debates of May 30th, 2024

Pharmacare Act

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I would request a recorded division, please.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Call in the members.

(The House divided on Motion No. 1, which was negatived on the following division:)

Vote #791

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I declare Motion No. 1 defeated. I therefore declare Motions Nos. 2 to 6 and 8 to 12 defeated.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

moved that Bill C-64, An Act respecting pharmacare, as amended, be concurred in at report stage.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The question is on the motion.

If a member participating in person wishes that the motion be carried or carried on division, or if a member of a recognized party participating in person wishes to request a recorded division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, we request a recorded vote, please.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #792

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

I declare the motion carried.

Business of the House

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Minister of Northern Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to request that the decision to extend the next sitting be rescinded, pursuant to the order made Wednesday, February 28.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

Pursuant to the order made on Wednesday, February 28, the minister's request to rescind the decision to extend the said sitting is deemed adopted.

Have a good Friday, everybody, and happy birthday to me.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

The Environment

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

Mr. Speaker, nobody knows how important a clean ocean is, and how important it is to protect it, better than the Nuu-chah-nulth people in the coastal communities where I live.

I have been so privileged to be able to represent eight of the Nuu-chah-nulth nations in my riding. When speaking on the floor of the House of Commons, I have mentioned Nuu-chah-nulth 102 times. To give some context, the member of Parliament who represented my riding before me for 15 years never once, on the floor of the House of Commons, said “Nuu-chah-nulth”, not one time.

In fact, I have said “Ahousaht” 35 times, and I have talked about the nation of Ahousaht and delivered its message here. The member before me only brought up Ahousaht's issues twice on the floor of the House of Commons. I really am humbled, and I hold the message I carry from Ahousaht and from the Nuu-chah-nulth people very carefully and very delicately.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I tabled a petition about the removal of open-net salmon farms. There were signatories from Ahousaht who had signed that petition. As members well know, when we table a petition in the House, it is not the viewpoint of the member; it is signed by constituents.

The Ahousaht nation was very concerned because it could have been perceived that it supported the direction of the petition, and only the Ha’wiih, the hereditary chiefs, are the ones who represent the Nuu-chah-nulth people. I want to make it clear and I want to correct things, because of the perception that happened with Ahousaht.

The Ahousaht people want to make it clear that it is the hereditary chiefs who are the decision-makers on behalf of the Ahousaht and their nation. Also, they are not requesting a compensation package. Their intent has always been to keep the salmon farms there past 2025, providing they continue to address the sea lice and pathogens. With the continued invasion technology coming eventually, they feel sea lice will be eliminated altogether.

If the Government of Canada wants to work with Ahousaht, or if it wants to change its policies, it actually needs to meet with Ahousaht, nation to nation. Ahousaht is calling for a meeting with the Prime Minister. I want to apologize for any confusion I created; mistakes do happen. I want to pass on that apology to the Ahousaht people.

Every minute, two garbage trucks' worth of plastic are dumped into the world's oceans. We have the longest coastline in the world. We just hosted the INC-4 conference and negotiations on plastic pollution. We know industrial waste is choking our coastline, making its way into our food and our vital ecosystems, impacting human health.

The Liberals went ahead and cancelled the ghost gear fund, a $58-million project, a world-leading project, that we supported in this House. In fact, Mr. Speaker, you voted for my motion, Motion No. 151, in 2018, to tackle plastic pollution, and that was clearly highlighted and identified.

I am concerned that the government is now walking away from it, despite the fact that there is critical infrastructure in place. This infrastructure is in jeopardy. It is going to impact organizations like the Coastal Restoration Society and the Ocean Legacy Foundation. They have removed 2,214 tonnes of plastic. They have helped leverage the Clean Coast, Clean Waters program out of the Province of British Columbia.

We cannot get an answer from the government on whether it is going to reinstate the program. We know that if we do not remove polystyrene, it spreads throughout the ecosystem and impacts human health, the mammals, the fish, our food security, the marine food webs that we rely on, and our economy as coastal people.

I am hoping we are going to get an answer today from the parliamentary secretary, since I dragged him here at 12:30 a.m. to talk about this critical issue.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries]

Mr. Speaker, good morning and happy birthday.

I have gotten to see, first-hand, the member's work on behalf of his constituents. They are very lucky to have him, in my opinion.

Canada is a proud maritime nation that relies on its oceans as a source of food, jobs, energy, raw materials, maritime trade, tourism and recreation. Fisheries in Canada play a critical role in indigenous and non-indigenous communities and coastal communities. They are an important part of our economy.

We are focused on sustainability and conservation. We are proud of our robust and sustainable, managed and well-regulated commercial fisheries. Ghost gear impacts are long-lasting. Ghost gear is a significant source of marine plastic pollution, which can have a devastating impact on marine mammals and aquatic ecosystems. It has the potential to break down into other forms of pollution, as just mentioned, such as microplastics, and other types of serious navigational hazards.

Our changing climate and extreme weather events are a major contributor to gear loss. This was evident in my neck of the woods during hurricane Fiona. Coastal communities were majorly impacted by ghost gear as a result of the storm.

The Government of Canada recognizes the threat that ghost gear poses in Canada and around the world, and has taken action. In 2018, Canada became a member of and leader in the Global Ghost Gear Initiative.

In 2019, Fisheries and Oceans Canada established the national ghost gear program. The program is focused on working with partners and stakeholders in Canada and around the world to prevent, retrieve and responsibly dispose of ghost gear. Since 2019, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has worked with partners and stakeholders to implement a legal requirement in all commercial fisheries to report lost fishing gear, and created an electronic fishing gear reporting system to help harvesters easily report lost and retrieved gear.

In 2020, the department launched the ghost gear fund to address four key ghost gear challenges: retrieval of ghost gear from our oceans, responsible disposal, acquisition and piloting of new technology to address ghost gear, and international leadership. The fund focused on engaging and working with indigenous partners and the fishing industry on solutions to this decades-old issue of ghost gear and lost gear. Through the fund, Canada distributed $58.3 million in support of 144 projects domestically and internationally. The work of our partners and harvesters is impressive, with over 2,233 tonnes of ghost gear removed from Canada's waters and more than 858 kilometres of rope retrieved to date.

Through the work undertaken by our dedicated partners, we have reduced the threat of entrapment, ghost gear fishing and the threat of entanglement to marine mammals, including endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The ghost gear fund has been critical in providing data needed to inform management measures to prevent gear loss in the first place. This is a key part of our ghost gear strategy for the future.

We need to address any potential ghost gear threats to the marine environment, as well as establishing regulatory tools and policies designed to effectively prevent or mitigate the loss of gear in Canada. These essential pieces will feed into the ghost gear action plan, which will consider the role of climate change on fishing gear loss and consider methods to strengthen a cyclical approach to plastics used in fishing gear, address regulatory impediments to facilitate lost gear retrieval and develop new tools to reduce the amount of gear lost in the Canadian fisheries.

Through the ghost gear program, Canada is committed to addressing ghost gear into the future, demonstrating the leadership of Canadian fisheries and protecting our marine ecosystems and fisheries for generations to come.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am sad that I did not get an answer. I do not want to be dragging my colleague, my friend, in here at 12:35 a.m. to try to get an answer and still not get an answer.

I will probably have to do this again, I hate to tell him and inform the House. We know polystyrene and plastic is literally choking our ocean. There was a movie just put out by Rick Smith called Plastic People. I recommend everybody watch it. It is affecting human health.

There is a solution. We could create an ecosystem service fee, a small fee on trans cargo shipment units and on the industrial use of plastics in the aquaculture industry, and use that like the government does with marine response. We have West Coast oil response in my community. That could be replicated when it comes to plastic pollution, something that my good colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith, is working on. I am working with her on that as well.

Maybe the member could speak about a solution that does not end this program and kill all that important infrastructure, and then come back to the House.

[Mike Kelloway, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member. It is never a chore to address questions that come from that member.

I want to say a couple of things. More work needs to be done. We realize that. Also, we are now using the information, and I think this is important, gathered under the fund to inform our actions for the future, including the development of regulatory tools, policies, and a ghost gear action plan. These will be developed with partners and stakeholders to address the near and long-term solutions to address gear loss.

Mental Health and Addictions

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Kelowna—Lake Country. To anyone in my community who might be watching at this late hour, now early the next day, I say hello.

I rise today to speak to the worsening addiction crisis in my province of British Columbian. Specifically, I will speak to the tragic failure of the NDP-Liberal government's drug decriminalization experiment.

The addiction crisis is something I raised in my very first speech in the House of Commons. It is an issue of importance to every resident of Kelowna—Lake Country and British Columbia.

The NDP-Liberal approach to addiction promised to reduce overdose deaths. However, according to the B.C.'s coroner's office, since 2015, the overdose rate has skyrocketed. In 2015, 20 residents of Kelowna and 529 British Columbians tragically perished from drug overdoses. In 2023, the first year of the NDP-Liberal B.C. decriminalization experiment, the coroner's office reported 2,511 deaths, the highest rate of overdose deaths in British Columbia's history. Roughly one person is fatally overdosing every four hours. In Kelowna, overdose deaths have been recorded in the triple digits for the very first time. These are not just statistics. These are our family members and our neighbours.

What the government is doing is not working. The Liberal and NDP members ignore solutions to get addiction treatment and recovery to people suffering from addiction. They did this when they voted down my private member's bill, the end the revolving door act. Dozens of leading addiction physicians have come out imploring the federal government to cancel or amend Canada's “safe supply” policies, citing that the federal government is misrepresenting the programs to the public. All this, yet the Liberal minister responsible for government-funded supply doubles down on their reckless drug policies.

I have spoken in the House on this tragic issue many times and asked how the NDP-Liberal government could continue with its decriminalization experiment, even when B.C.'s top doctor said that so-called safe supply is landing into street-level trafficking and ending up in the hands of children.

That was not the first time I raised this government's failed policies concerning child safety. Last spring, on behalf of parents in my community and from across B.C., I raised concerns about bringing their children to parks and playgrounds because the government was allowing open drug use. Liberal and NDP members chose to applaud themselves at the time rather than listen to the voices of the parents scared for the safety of their children.

Crime has become rampant in our neighbourhoods, hurting families and small businesses. Now, we have the serious problem of government-supplied, taxpayer-funded hard drugs. They are getting into the hands of organised crime to be trafficked in the black market across Canada, fuelling the toxic drug crisis.

The RCMP in Campbell River, B.C., and in Prince George, B.C., seized thousands of prescription drug pills, many of which were reported as being diverted from the B.C. government-funded supply program. Powdered fentanyl was seized that had been shaped into dinosaur gummies. B.C. nurses have strongly spoken out against the results in hospitals of the illicit drug policy experiment, which was approved by the Liberal government.

The B.C. NDP stepped back some of its drug policies due to an impending election. The Liberals will not commit to never approving again a similar request in another jurisdiction in this country.

Things are getting worse. More people are getting addicted. Families are losing more loved ones, and drug overdose is now the number one cause of death for British Columbia youth. Will this government stop its radical drug policies?

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me wish you a happy birthday. I am sure you will get some quality time with your family.

We remain deeply concerned about the overdose crisis and its impact on individuals, friends, families and communities across the country. In fact, Canadians are concerned about the crisis. Every loss of life is tragic. It is not a partisan issue; it is a health care issue. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the crisis. A complex health and social issue requires a multi-faceted response. This is why we continue to support provinces and territories to build up their health services so they are available when people need them.

Building on significant investments made in the full continuum of services to address the crisis since 2017, as well as significant increases in health funding for provinces and territories, budget 2024 announced $150 million over three years to support municipalities and indigenous communities to rapidly access funds to mobilize efforts and address their urgent needs to save lives now.

The overdose crisis is bigger than any one government or organization. It will take the collective efforts of everyone, including provinces, territories, indigenous leaders, professional and regulatory bodies and health care providers, to stop the needless harm and deaths of Canadians and address the many other costs of substance abuse.

Substance use and addiction are health issues and not criminal ones, as I said earlier. People need care, not jail. Our government has been committed to various approaches that divert people who use drugs from the criminal justice system to appropriate health and social services whenever possible. For example, in August 2020, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada issued guidelines directing that alternatives to prosecution should be considered for personal possession offences, except when there are serious aggravating circumstances.

In addition, as of November 2022, police and prosecutors are legally required to consider alternatives to laying charges or prosecuting individuals for drug possession, such as diversion to treatment, a warning or taking no further action. This means that individuals can avoid being criminalized and can get the help they need to address underlying issues, recognizing that substance use is primarily a health and social issue.

We have also invested in prevention. Youth are more vulnerable to substance-related harm and are more likely than adults to engage in risk-taking behaviours, such as substance use, for a variety of reasons, including the stage in brain development and need for social inclusion. Further, earlier and more frequent exposure to substance use is leading to greater risk of harm.

Through budget 2023, we committed $20.2 million for a new youth substance-use prevention program to support communities across Canada to build capacity to implement and adapt the Icelandic Prevention Model to Canada. This internationally recognized model focuses on building strong and healthy communities, instead of targeting individual behaviour. It has been shown to be effective in decreasing long-term substance use among youth.

In conclusion, we are committed to continuing to work to find solutions to this ever-evolving crisis. This will require having youth try innovative actions, monitoring them closely and following the data in order to find what works. We cannot arrest our way out of the crisis. Our response needs to be compassionate and grounded in prevention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery and, of course, enforcement.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Speaker, what the government is doing is not balanced. The member speaks to what he considers successes of the Liberals' illicit-drug policies, but I would ask the member opposite why, if their policies are so fantastic and successful, they have been enacted only in British Columbia.

Residents from my community are at ground zero of the toxic drug crisis's horribly sad results. Only B.C. families and small businesses have been forced to suffer the consequences of the poorly thought-out and increasingly tragic policy. The facts are clear. Overdoses are up, overdose deaths are up and addictions are up. Unsafe drug paraphernalia litter our parks, playgrounds and streets. Government-supplied, taxpayer-funded hard drugs are being diverted to criminals and to children.

A common-sense Conservative government would end the failed NDP-Liberal drug experiment for good and make sure it is not allowed anywhere else in Canada. Conservatives will stop the crime and bring hope through addiction treatment and recovery to bring our loved ones home.

[Yasir Naqvi, Liberal, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Mr. Speaker, all of us want to save lives, but what will not save lives is a bunch of slogans, and that is the only thing we keep hearing from Conservatives. We are very much open to new ideas that are going to help people suffering from mental health, substance abuse and addiction challenges. We are not the only ones around the globe who are facing the crisis. All of us are working hard to find solutions. Just yesterday I had a conversation with former senator Vern White on precisely this issue, to look at ways we can ensure that those Canadians among us who are suffering from substance abuse can get the care they need. That will require trying different things to find the perfect way forward.

I can assure members that what is not going to help is a bunch of slogans. We need to address the issue as a health care issue and show the care and the compassion that Canadians deserve so that we can save Canadian lives.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Greg Fergus]

The motion to adjourn the House is now deemed to have been adopted. Accordingly, the House stands adjourned until later this day at 10 a.m. pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).

(The House adjourned at 12:47 a.m.)