I originally put my hand up in response to the amendment that Dr. Powlowski had put forth. I wanted to ask the chair or perhaps the clerk something.
This was brought up, specifically about the impacts of the opioid crisis on our indigenous communities. I thought we had already agreed to at least one meeting and possibly more. It is important, as has been stated by many.
Where I disagree with the our colleague, Mr. Johns, as he stepped down off his soapbox, is that this has been brought up by others, not necessarily him. Again, it's typical NDP fashion in being late to the game on this. It might even have been Dr. Powlowski who brought it up initially and I echoed it.
We had Takla First Nation in my office earlier on talking about their band council resolutions. They are oftentimes left to deal with this, the significant gap in resources and policing on their first nations, and how challenging it is to enforce a dry community or what have you. We're talking about safe supply going into these communities and how that impacts our first nations.
I know this has been brought up. Through you, Mr. Chair, perhaps the clerk could us tell us if we had already scheduled at least one or two meetings on this.
If not, then I'm in full agreement. I just don't know whether four meetings is enough for what we need to get through, but I'm okay with the convention that, as we've been going along, should we go through those four meetings and feel the need for further meetings, we can go forward with that.
I know that this issue has been brought up and it is an important issue. We need to be able to bring the appropriate people here—first nations in our ridings—who can actually explain what's happening on the ground in their communities and how important it is to have their voices heard.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I originally put my hand up in response to the amendment that Dr. Powlowski had put forth. I wanted to ask the chair or perhaps the clerk something.
This was brought up, specifically about the impacts of the opioid crisis on our indigenous communities. I thought we had already agreed to at least one meeting and possibly more. It is important, as has been stated by many.
Where I disagree with the our colleague, Mr. Johns, as he stepped down off his soapbox, is that this has been brought up by others, not necessarily him. Again, it's typical NDP fashion in being late to the game on this. It might even have been Dr. Powlowski who brought it up initially and I echoed it.
We had Takla First Nation in my office earlier on talking about their band council resolutions. They are oftentimes left to deal with this, the significant gap in resources and policing on their first nations, and how challenging it is to enforce a dry community or what have you. We're talking about safe supply going into these communities and how that impacts our first nations.
I know this has been brought up. Through you, Mr. Chair, perhaps the clerk could us tell us if we had already scheduled at least one or two meetings on this.
If not, then I'm in full agreement. I just don't know whether four meetings is enough for what we need to get through, but I'm okay with the convention that, as we've been going along, should we go through those four meetings and feel the need for further meetings, we can go forward with that.
I know that this issue has been brought up and it is an important issue. We need to be able to bring the appropriate people here—first nations in our ridings—who can actually explain what's happening on the ground in their communities and how important it is to have their voices heard.