Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our theme today is addiction. Two and a half minutes cannot do this topic any justice because it is a very, very complex topic, but I am hoping that with all the different perspectives of my colleagues here today, we can send a message.
This is a topic I get very frustrated talking about because it doesn’t seem we have a plan, the tools, or maybe even the will to deal with it. I wish we could fully quantify and articulate the impacts substance abuse has on our residents, how many lives cut short. How the quality of life is diminished through the loss, suffering, pain and harm of substance abuse. We see all the signs: our jails are filled with inmates who acted under the influence of substances, our classrooms with children struggling because of dysfunctional homes, our students with learning impairments because of fetal alcohol effects, our hospitals with people with conditions and diseases resulting from a life of not caring about their own well-being, the sheer human toll of lives not lived to their potential.
As a government we state that the safety and well-being of our residents is a high priority, but when you see how little impact our investments, our efforts, our programs and services have had over the years in addressing our well-documented statistics on addictions and substance abuse, there has to be something wrong with what we are doing.
The abuse of drugs and alcohol in our territory is robbing and killing our people. Why can’t we see that and call it for what it is? We worry about public safety, workplace safety, wear a seatbelt, wear a helmet, don’t text and drive, harm reduction; the list goes on and on. We can’t say that we’re not involved in the safety and well-being of our people, but when it comes to drugs and alcohol, we defend the right of people to make their own choices. They drink when they’re pregnant, no matter the lifetime of harm they’re inflicting on another human being.
The recent incident of food safety where XL Foods Products went out and 12 people in Canada got sick from E. coli and the story headlined the news for weeks and millions of kilograms of meat was put into landfills, and yet alcohol and drug abuse is making our people sick and killing them and it’s not the social norm but the way of life for countless people in our territories. This insidious problem of abuse has infiltrated every aspect of our lives and we have become complacent about co-existing with this enemy. We have adjusted our tolerance out of conditioning to thinking that this is normal. This is not normal. I have never thought it was normal.
This destruction that is passing from generation to generation is depriving our people of freedom and happiness, and consuming an inordinate amount of our resources. Why can’t we see it for what it is doing?
I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
I get very passionate about this topic. I apologize.
Why can’t we see it for what it is and what it is doing? If we knew there was a road washed out and people went speeding towards an open pit that would result in injury and death for sure, would we not do everything in our power to warn and prevent them from speeding over the edge? Would we not divert the road, put up barricades, warning signs, physically go out and try to do everything we could to stop them? We wouldn’t stand by and say, well, it’s just their choice to take that road.
We need to create a new norm, and we need to do it with the new generations of young people coming up. It’s not normal to live in a haze and struggle a lifetime with addictions and we should be shouting it, as leaders, from the rooftops.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
