Ya'ara Saks

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Madam Chair, to be clear, I, as Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, have not met with Fair Price Pharma. The September 15 meeting the member is referencing was actually a meeting of ISED, with another office and not my department. There were members of my staff who were present at that meeting, who were invited to listen in. To be clear, we meet with experts in this field. Dr. Kendall was joined by Dr. Schechter and other experts at those meetings, and we need to talk to experts, even if we do not agree with them.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Madam Chair, I want to thank the member for sharing what he is seeing in his own community. We are seeing this in communities across the country, and it is so important we meet the moment. A war on drugs is what the Conservatives are purporting to be the answer, with forced treatment and saying they care for their loved ones, but they want to criminalize people.

We need compassion. We need health care. We need a firm commitment to a comprehensive suite of tools that, yes, includes harm reduction. It is shameful to see there is such a lack of compassion on the other side of what it truly takes to invest in Canadians, to invest in families and to invest in communities to save lives in this overdose crisis.

We have put a billion dollars on this side of the House toward saving lives, and we will not stop. We are meeting this moment with our provincial jurisdictions. We are meeting the moment with our communities, with harm reduction, with treatment, with prevention and with care. On this side of the House, we care about Canadians.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, for an opposition member who says we should get out of the way of the provinces, I am surprised that he does not appreciate that health care is a jurisdictional purview of the province, and we should—

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question for the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions of Ontario.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, they vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, that is why we signed a $3.1-billion bilateral agreement with the Province of Ontario, with $700 million allocated to mental health and substance use.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, no.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it is under provincial jurisdiction to provide treatment health care.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, as mentioned before, over $700 million has been allocated to the Province of Ontario for mental health and substance use in the coming years. That being said, in the 2024 budget, the ETF, the emergency transfer fund, offers $150 million over three years to communities to seek additional assistance.

[Business of Supply, May 29th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, it is under the jurisdiction of the province to implement beds and treatment.