Health committee  The increase has not been notable—only incrementally marginal—and, in fact, when it comes to youth, we know that the only complex mental health and addictions treatment centre that was located in Vancouver is actually closing.

Health committee  No, I don't think governments at either level, provincially or federally, are. I think that not enough emphasis has been put on prevention, certainly. We keep having these discussions about individual services. While they're important, what we really need to do is start developing a true framework for the country and for individual provinces that is a recovery-oriented system of care that has strength in all four pillars, not the one-legged stool of simply trying to look at one service option at a time but vastly scaling up all parts of the pillars, including enforcement.

Health committee  Unfortunately, and I do have some notes on it, it's incomplete data. Here we are talking about a government that has had almost a decade in power. In our province we've been in a public health emergency for eight years. I heard the comments today about whether Canada should declare a public health emergency.

Health committee  Yes, but why would it take that long? Here we were eight years into an emergency, and only at the 11th hour of a failed experiment were we introducing something that could have provided access to a variety of medications and treatments to people across the provinces, particularly in locations where they don't have bricks and mortar services.

Health committee  I wrote a letter to Minister Ya'ara Saks, which I also carbon-copied to Premier David Eby, to the effect that I actually support a call from doctors across Canada, addiction specialists, including 72 in British Columbia, who are calling for witnessed prescribed alternatives that are recovery oriented.

Health committee  It's a “pay now or pay later” scenario. And what is the cost of a life? When we reduce these things to what will it cost and we look at the human cost, six people a day in British Columbia are losing their lives. I think that if there are alternatives that can protect the public from diversion, make sure that we're ramping up things like prevention strategies and actually warning people that it is not safe to take other people's medication and actually safeguarding the public....

Health committee  My concern with the diversion of safe supply is twofold. The first concern, and probably the one that has hit me the hardest, really, is the impact it has had on young people. I've met with physicians, but I've also met with the parents of young kids who have succumbed to overdose.

Health committee  Yes. Police have put out news releases and have reported in the media about drug investigations that have a nexus to organized crime. Gang activity in British Columbia is obviously a concern, so any kind of diversion or government program that would in any way put money into the hands of organized criminals and gangs is a top concern.

Health committee  One of the most impactful and devastating stories I heard first-hand from a father named Greg. His young daughter started using drugs at age 14. She died at age 15. The widespread impact was that her group of friends was using drugs together. One of the kids in the friend group is still living.

Health committee  I don't have [Inaudible—Editor].

Health committee  First of all, yes, I have changed my opinion of decriminalization. I want to be clear, too, that it is important to note that there have been, even in previous years or months, decreases in overdose deaths, even several months in a row, only to be then followed by increases. This is certainly the case.

Health committee  No, I have not.

Health committee  Well, the other part of it, too, is that, in the beginning, Minister Bennett promised citizens of British Columbia that we would have a dashboard that was going to be updated monthly. The dashboard would be publicly facing and it would be monitored in real time. The context of the data collection was then altered, and that was allowed to become a selective snapshot.

Health committee  I think that what's important to note are the concerns I've raised over the duration of my time as a member of the Legislative Assembly. They is a lack of evidence of the efficacy of the program and certainly the absolute failure to look at things that are potential harms to the community.

Health committee  What we're seeing in British Columbia is certainly a large number of people who have acquired brain injury as a result of overdose. I myself have administered naloxone to people in the course of my duty. I'm a former RCMP officer. I can say that one of the things that really worried me is that, at times, I'd be dispatched to a call for a person who was unconscious with a suspected overdose, and there was no ambulance ready in B.C.