Madam Speaker, the biggest issue facing my community right now has to be the opioid crisis, hands down. The chief medical officer for the Cowichan Valley told me that we had two epidemics going on right now: COVID-19 and the opioids crisis.
Unfortunately when I looked through the content of the throne speech, and this opinion shared by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, there was only a single reference to the opioids crisis. It is really unconscionable, given the public health crisis we are facing, especially in communities like mine, that only a passing reference was made.
The government needs to redouble its efforts to fight this crisis to ensure we are not losing hundreds of people to overdose deaths each year and to ensure that communities like mine are not going to continue being ravaged by it into the future. We have lost far too many people. I would like to hear the member's comments on that.