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OTTAWA — Provincial leaders ought to focus on improving access to treatment before deciding whether those struggling with addiction should decide to go on their own or involuntarily, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks said Friday.
Saks appeared before reporters to announce the launch of a $150-million fund that cities and First Nations can apply to access to fund programs that help them respond to the overdose crisis, which public health experts say is driven by an increasingly toxic drug supply.
Asked about growing calls for involuntary treatment on Friday, Saks said jurisdictions first need to ensure they have treatment services in place, “which currently they don’t have.”
“Before we contemplate voluntary or involuntary treatment, I would like to see provinces and territories ensuring that they actually have treatment access scaled to need,” she said. “They are not there yet. They have the resources and tools to do it.”
Leaders such as B.C. NDP Leader David Eby, who is campaigning for reelection in the province known as ground zero for the crisis, has promised to open facilities that offer involuntary care for those with serious addictions and mental illness.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has also promised her United Conservative Party government would introduce a law allowing family members, police or physicians to seek involuntary treatment on behalf of someone else.
Federal Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also told reporters on Thursday he supports involuntary treatment for minors and those in prisons struggling with mental illness and addictions, but is still studying the issue when it comes to adults.
Saks said the role of the federal government is to support the provinces when it comes to health care, which she underscored that provinces and territories are responsible for administering.
“Before we talk about involuntary or voluntary treatment, I would like to see them utilize and access the robust $200-billion worth of health-care agreements that have been signed across the country,” she said, referring to the deal announced with jurisdictions last year.
“This is about political will and allocating the resources that they have to providing treatment access to those who need it in a way that is timely and accessible.”
Poilievre has been leading the charge in criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s handling of the overdose crisis, deaths from which the federal health agency began tracking in 2016.
More than 47,000 people have died from opioid-related poisonings from January 2016 until March 2024, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Many public health, addictions experts and other advocates say the staggering death toll comes from an increasingly toxic supply of drugs.
Poilievre says the federal government has failed to offer enough treatment options to help Canadians recover. He has slammed its support of supervised consumption sites, which he calls “drug dens,” as fuelling addiction, and its funding of “safer supply” programs that provide users with pharmaceutical alternatives like hydromorphone to prevent them from using street drugs.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has pledged to close 10 supervised consumption sites, which are facilities that allow people to bring their own drugs to use under the watch of someone else in the event they may overdose.
Ford cited public safety concerns in his decision to shutter the sites.
On Friday, Saks defended these facilities as having reversed around 58,000 overdoses since 2016, saying that when access to them are closed, it endangers people’s lives.
She added there are examples of jurisdictions where such sites operate well within communities and that concerns around public safety are properly addressed.
“Jurisdictions are responsible for the health services that they provide,” Saks said Friday.
“We continue to provide guidelines and standards. We provide the regulatory structures for safe consumption sites that are adhered to by the operators, but yes, provinces have a key part to play in this.”
National Post
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