Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli today brought forward local concerns about what he calls “the ongoing opioid crisis in Ontario," at Queen's Park on Tuesday.
In a Member’s Statement, Fedeli relayed a resolution passed recently by the council in Mattawa.
“The opioid crisis in Ontario has hit my riding as well as many others very hard,” stated Fedeli in Queen’s Park.
“We’ve had 15 fentanyl-related deaths, which thankfully have been curbed since the introduction of the Patch 4 Patch program, the focus of my Private Members Bill which was adopted into law back in 2015.”
Fedeli believes more must be done.
“The Town of Mattawa passed a resolution recently backing a call seeking provincial support to deal with the opioid crisis on a local level,” he said.
“Their resolution called for the province to ‘enhance our local response…by ensuring all places that support vulnerable people, as well as first responders, have access to naloxone and training in its use.’”
Fedeli feels that resolution echoes the call from the PC caucus for a ‘provincially funded public opioid education campaign.’
“The Town of Mattawa notes Ontario has witnessed 13 years of increasing deaths due to opioid overdoses, and numbers show a 19% increase in 2016,” he exclaimed.
“Communities across the province need support. We are eager to see how the government’s response translates into action and help at the local level with this crisis.”
At the Ontario PC caucus retreat last month in Timmins, Leader Patrick Brown called on the government to take a number of actions to address the opioid crisis by cracking down on illegal pill press machines used to make counterfeit pills along with those who operate them.
