HESA Committee Meeting
Notices of Meeting include information about the subject matter to be examined by the committee and date, time and place of the meeting, as well as a list of any witnesses scheduled to appear. The Evidence is the edited and revised transcript of what is said before a committee. The Minutes of Proceedings are the official record of the business conducted by the committee at a sitting.
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Minutes of Proceedings
Conservative
Catriona Hippman and Tina Montreuil made statements.
At 3:51 p.m., the sitting was suspended.
At 3:52 p.m., the sitting resumed.
Ryan Van Lieshout and Simone Vigod made statements and, with the other witnesses, answered questions.
Stephen Ellis gave notice of the following motion:
That, given:
•The Minister of Mental Health and Addictions has asserted that there is “no evidence of widespread diversion”, and yet the Health Canada data released today shows that police seizures of government-issued hydromorphone (Dilaudid) in British Columbia have increased fourfold, or 300%, since the implementation of “safe supply,” from less than 100 seizures per year to 408 seizures in 2023;
•The Prince George RCMP reported the seizure of “thousands” of safe supply pills in an illegal drugbust of 10,000 individual prescription pills last month, and police in Campbell River, British Columbia have reported the seizure of 3,500 diverted safe supply pills on the territory of the We Wai Kai First Nation;
•The chief of the We Wai Kai Nation has harshly criticized the so called “safe supply” experiment;
•3,656 people in British Columbia have received government-issued hydromorphone because of this dangerous experiment; and
•There have been reports of diverted safe-supply drugs being sold in schools;
The committee call the following witnesses: the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Health Canada officials for no less than two hours; RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme; Assistant Commissioner John Brewer of RCMP “E” Division.
Questioning of the witnesses resumed.
On motion of Marcus Powlowski, ORDERED, — That the unredacted copies of the vaccine supply contract between the Government of Canada and Medicago Inc. dated Friday, November 13, 2020, submitted to the committee in response to the motion adopted on Friday, January 19, 2024, be immediately destroyed by the clerk following the adoption of this motion.
At 5:37 p.m., the committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.