Jinny Sims

[Respect for Communities Act, November 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, one of the key issues is that all levels of government want to tackle the drug issue. However, the federal government's way of tackling it is to tell people they cannot do drugs, believing that if it stops giving them rehabilitation and support, they are just going to stop doing drugs. That is not going to happen.

Let me just read some of the other benefits. The fact is that there are 35% fewer overdose deaths. If that does not cut it, the fact that there are fewer needles out on the streets makes our communities feel safer. Among the people who go to InSite, there is a 70% drop in people who are likely to share needles. I will leave the health implications to my colleagues across the way.

As well, InSite users, because all these other services are available on site, are far more able to make use of other health care support systems that they need. As I said before, drug treatment is not a simplistic solution. It needs a multi-pronged approach. InSite is a key component and a very successful program, so why would we want to dismantle a successful program?

[Respect for Communities Act, November 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, here is a cost-benefit analysis: 35% fewer overdose deaths.

Let me also say that the evidence shows, and not just from InSite but from other sites in Europe as well, that people who are using InSite and the services there are twice as likely to want to access the rehabilitation and treatment centres that we have to offer.

This aspect is an integral part of dealing with an issue that is of major concern. The government, at the very time it is cutting rehabilitation and support for substance abusers as well as for other people who need rehabilitation, then has the audacity to say that this is not an effective program when science tells us it is.

[Respect for Communities Act, November 28th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to Bill C-2, an act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Once again I am struck by the title of the bill, but I am also confused as to where the bill would be going after we have finished with it in this House at second reading. It will be sent to the public safety committee. I am finding it hard to understand why it would be going there when we are looking specifically at a health issue. Controlled drugs and substance abuse fall under health issues.

Once again I am forced to ask myself the question of what this bill is really about. Is it really about tackling drugs and substance abuse in our community? Is that what the bill is really about? Is it about making sure that our young people are safe? Is it about making sure that there are rehabilitation programs to help young people, and those who are not so young, who have managed to become engaged in addictive behaviour?

There are addictive drugs, and often people end up being sufferers of substance abuse not because of choice but because circumstances have taken them there. However, once we have identified them as addicts, so to speak, then we also know that it is a health issue and we have to treat it as such. Instead of looking at ways to tackle the very complex issue of substance abuse, the government once again wants very simplistic, headline-grabbing kind of legislation.

A few days ago, we were debating a bill called drug-free prisons. That legislation had nothing to do with treatment or rehabilitation. All it had to do with was a urine test that was already being conducted and was already being taken into consideration by the Parole Board. That is the only part that was in the bill, yet according to the government across the aisle, it was all about drug-free prisons. We begin to wonder, when we see bills like this one and the other one, if it is not really about appealing to the base. Is it just a modus operandi to fill up the Conservative coffers? I am beginning to think that is what it is all about.

The reason is that as a teacher and a counsellor who worked for a long time in the public school system and has experience dealing with people who are engaged in substance abuse as well as those who live with those who are abusing drugs, I have seen the devastation it can have on people's lives. All the research that exists says that just telling people they cannot do something will not get rid of the problem; instead, what we need is a multi-pronged approach in order to take on an issue such as substance abuse.

I come from a riding very far from here, Newton—North Delta, in beautiful British Columbia. In my riding we are very concerned about community safety. We are very concerned about gangs and we are very concerned about substance abuse.

The community wants to find solutions to help our youth, but I do not see anything coming forward in this House from the other side that is a proactive, preventive, or rehabilitative program. I see just words on paper and more or less ideological positions that are not based on science, research, or anything else. The fact that addictions are a health issue is not even taken into consideration. They are a health issue, and as such, we must treat them as a health issue.

That does not mean we are saying that people involved in criminal activities should not have consequences, but surely, at the same time, we also have to realize that we live in a country where even through our penal system we absolutely believe in rehabilitation. We do not believe that we just put someone in prison, shut the door, and that is it, because we know those people, young and old, are going to come out and come back into our communities.

When I look at the bill, I see that it is really a not-so-veiled attempt to defy a Supreme Court ruling that ruled in favour of injection sites operating when a community assessment shows that community support is there and when there is value to it.

I note my colleagues across the way have an allergy to science. They also have an allergy to research, facts, and data. Their way of operating is to just appeal to their ideological base and not take into consideration what will work and what will make our communities safer. All they want are sound bites without any substance so that they can collect more money.

There are over 30 peer-reviewed studies published in respected journals, such as The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, and the British Medical Journal. They have all described the beneficial impacts of InSite.

Some may not be aware, but InSite is situated in British Columbia, on Vancouver's east side. Studies on over 70 safe injection sites in Europe and Australia have shown similar benefits, so InSite in Vancouver is not a one-off. Programs similar to InSite that operate throughout Europe have shown similar benefits.

InSite is one of the greatest public health achievements in Canada. I do not say that lightly. I have actually been on site and I have seen how it works. I have actually talked to the people who go in there, and the people who work there as well. We believe sites like this would benefit other cities where they are needed.

There is also this idea that InSite just opens the door and anybody can just walk in, that it is just a way of getting free drugs and free needles. That is very far from the truth. In order to use InSite, one has to be at least 16 years of age, sign a user agreement, adhere to a code of conduct, and not be accompanied by children.

Eighty per cent of the people living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside support InSite. Also, overdose deaths in East Vancouver have dropped 35% since InSite has been in operation. Surely that is evidence that we need to allow InSite and other organizations like it to be established so that we can take on this problem.

Once again, I want to appeal to my colleagues across the way. Let us start looking at science. Let us start looking at the research. Let us start listening to health professionals, from nurses and doctors to associations. Let us start paying attention to the real professionals and take our guidance from them, and let us not make things worse and make our communities unsafe.

While ideologically you argue that you are fixing a problem, you are actually putting communities at risk.

[Poverty, November 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, 25 years ago, Ed Broadbent got the unanimous support of the House on a motion to end child poverty by the year 2000. Sadly, today more children and families live in poverty. Twenty-five years of Conservative and Liberal governments failed to act on this promise.

A real economic recovery plan must include reducing and ending child poverty. Where is the recovery plan for children living in poverty?

[Drug-Free Prisons Act, November 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for a very eloquent and thoughtful presentation on a bill that has a name that is more like a bumper sticker. However, in content all it does is put into law what the Parole Board already does. It has nothing in it that I can see that would help us to move towards drug-free prisons, or do anything in the short term.

My question to my colleague is, with an increasing population in our prisons, with double-bunking, cuts to the budget, specifically around correction and drug abuse, what is in this bill that would help to keep our prisons free of drugs?

[Drug-Free Prisons Act, November 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, there is absolutely nothing in the drug-free prisons act that would do that. This is a slogan to appeal to the masses.

I am surprised that we have not had more debate in this House today on a number of bills. However, I do want to express appreciation to the member for being the first member from the other side to get up to ask questions today. I am hoping she will take back to her caucus that we need to invest in rehabilitation and correction and not reduce the money at the same time that the number of prisoners is increasing.

[Drug-Free Prisons Act, November 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, we have laws, and when people use illegal drugs, those laws kick in.

Once again the member across the way seems to fail in comprehending a very fundamental point. The point is that if we want to tackle substance abuse by prisoners, we have to use a multi-pronged approach. Cutting the budget and reducing the services available for correction, whether it is in substance abuse or otherwise, will not solve that problem.

Once again, just saying, “Stop doing drugs” will not do it. This is a health issue, and it is the same government that is releasing prisoners, after they have finished their terms, into our communities without ensuring that they have had the rehabilitation they need so we do not have repeat offenders and the taxpayer does not keep paying over and over again.

[Drug-Free Prisons Act, November 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I am flabbergasted that a government would actually remove harm reduction in dealing with substance abuse.

I stress again that if the government is serious about public safety and serious about tackling the drug problems in our prisons, there is a way to do it. It was studied at committee. There are experts who have told the committee how it can be done, but cutting the budget is not how to do it.

The committee made recommendations. None of those have been implemented here. The only thing the bill does is codify a practice that the Parole Board already uses. There is nothing in here that will actually lead to reduction of drug usage in our prisons.

[Drug-Free Prisons Act, November 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I am not often left speechless, but when I hear statements like that one about the NDP supporting needle exchanges for prisons, I am speechless, and I would say that the member across the way knows that is not true.

Let me go on to what the member across the way did say.

A measly 2.7% of the budget is actually spent on corrections, including substance abuse, in all of the rehabilitation budget, and that budget, as I said in my speech, if the member across the way was listening, has actually gone down, while the number of prisoners has gone up. We have gone down from $11 million to $9 million, yet now we have a greater number of prisoners. The number of prisoners going in with substance abuse issues and mental health issues has increased, yet that budget is going down. This will not solve the problem.

[Drug-Free Prisons Act, November 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, as a counsellor who was involved in dealing with young students with addiction problems and who watched what it did to the families, and as someone who was involved in dealing with children whose parents had substance abuse problems and who watched the impact it had on the young people, I do not think there is anybody out there who does not realize that drug addiction and substance abuse are health issues.

We have to have a multi-pronged approach. It has to include proper supports. It has to include counselling as well as front-line service from our health care system.

Just making huge pronouncements is not going to fix the problem. I would love to make an announcement that Canada is going to be a drug-free zone. I would love to make that pronouncement. However, that pronouncement is not going to make it happen.

In that same way, this bill should have some substance and actually take a look at treatment.