Mr. Speaker, families grieve, addicts struggle and communities do their best to backfill for government failure, and the Liberal government's transformational budget has nothing for us. The word “addiction” appears only once, on page 247, to remind us that $1.2 billion in provincial transfers to support not only addictions, but home and community care and mental health services will vanish after the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Today, I am standing up and saying what the 20 Liberal MPs from British Columbia do not have the guts to say, even though Pandora Avenue and the Downtown Eastside are both in Liberal ridings. With this budget, the Liberal government has abandoned us. There is no national strategy, no support for local treatment and recovery and no recognition of the crisis that is unfolding in towns and cities like mine.
In Nanaimo, we need funding for local treatment and recovery beds. Our frontline workers need support, and our communities need a real path to healing.