Last weekend I welcomed the opportunity to join my federal, provincial and territorial counterparts, as well as public health professionals from across Canada, in Ottawa for important discussions around the opioid crisis facing our country.
The conference was an opportunity to develop a coordinated national response, and learn from the experiences of other regions and agencies as they work to address the immediate effects and underlying causes of opioid abuse. Our goal has been to reduce the impact of opioids through the distribution of naloxone on an expanded basis, but also to aggressively warn parents and all Manitobans of the dangers of this drug, its presence in drugs where users cannot know it is hiding, and the dangers it poses to unsuspecting and vulnerable children and to our first responders.
Manitoba will also continue to look for ways to improve access to alternative treatment therapies like Suboxone to address opioid addiction. I look forward to working collaboratively with our partners across Canada and expect this national effort will be funded appropriately by the federal government.
I am pleased to be returning home knowing that our government and public health officials have committed to action and are taking immediate steps to address this very real public health concern.
