Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott has accepted some of the Senate’s changes to a key piece of legislation to deal with the continuing opioid crisis.
The Senate passed Bill C-37 with three amendments a week ago, sending it back to the House of Commons.
Today, the Liberal government signalled it will accept the Senate’s tweak to the legislation that calls for a minimum of 45 days for the public to comment on new supervised drug consumption sites.
But Philpott is rejecting an amendment that would give her the option to set up a citizen advisory committee to write annual reports on public concerns about the presence of the site in the community.
Speaking in the House of Commons Friday, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Health said that amendment would have provided a level of civilian oversight not found in any other health service.
“We know that people who use drugs already face discrimination and stigmatization that can prevent them from accessing the services they need to stay alive,” said Joel Lightbound.
“By including a process that could further add to the stigmatization faced by people who use drugs, this amendment runs against the intent and the spirit of bill C-37,” he added.
More surprisingly, Philpott is not rejecting the most controversial amendment from the Senate, which would require doctors at these sites to offer substitute pharmaceuticals to drug users as an alternative to using more dangerous street drugs and to discourage the sale of illicit drugs.
Instead, the health minister is suggesting the Senate’s wording be amended to replace the words “shall offer” with the words “may offer.”
Lightbound said the government was concerned that by making this mandatory, it could prevent addicts from using the sites.
“The more requirements or rules that are added to the process for accessing supervised consumption sites the less accessible this service becomes to the vulnerable population it is meant to serve,” he said.
Lightbound added that none of the sites currently operating, or the 18 with applications before Health Canada, would be able to meet the requirement as written by the Senate amendment.
“Canadians are dying every single day and communities are urging us to set up supervised consumption sites to stop the overdoses and the deaths. I do not want the federal government to be what stands in the way of communities saving lives here and now,” Lightbound told MPs in the Commons.
But Conservative health critic Colin Carrie defended that proposed change made by a Conservative senator.
“They come in with a vial of poison basically, something that was made up in a drug dealer’s basement and it’s not safe, it’s dangerous. And this amendment would allow addicts to be offered a pharmaceutical grade option instead of forcing them to use this dangerous drug,” Carrie said.
The Canadian HIV/AIDS legal network opposed all of the Senate’s amendments and sent out a letter to all M.P.’s this week outlining why.
“We fully support the good intention behind the amendment that dealt with offering ‘alternative pharmaceutical therapy’ to someone using a supervised consumption site, (but) the way it was crafted is highly problematic. It is not advisable or acceptable to make the offer of such mandatory and on every single occasion someone comes to a site to use it,” Richard Elliott, executive director of Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network wrote in the letter.
Elliott argued that offering pharmaceutical alternatives to drug users is something that should be added to these sites over time.
The minister’s own changes now must be passed by the House of Commons before they are sent back to the Senate, which could agree to the amended bill or dig in its heels. The bill must pass with the same wording in both chambers before it can become law.
Opioid crisis
No matter what happens next, the amendments will delay passage of a bill that is a key part of the Liberal government’s response to the opioid crisis, which continues to see people die every week in Canada.
The Liberals introduced the new rules around supervised drug injection sites to make it easier for communities to open them late last year. Harm reduction advocates argued the 26 criteria brought in under the previous Conservative government were too onerous.
Beyond supervised drug injection sites, the legislation also contains sections meant to deal with other aspects of the opioid epidemic.
For instance, C-37 contains measures to make it more difficult to import pill presses in the hopes of reducing the amount of fentanyl manufactured illegally and sold on the streets.
It would also give the Canada Border Services Agency the power to open letter mail if an officer has reasonable grounds to suspect it contains something illegal.
What’s at risk if the Senate amends C-37 – the safe injection sites bill?4:38