The spotlight was on the ongoing Canadian opioid crisis as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sat down with big-city mayors in Ottawa on Friday.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi was among the municipal leaders to gather for a meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
The Calgary mayor said the opioid crisis affects people from every walk of life.
“It is absolutely an emergency, it is absolutely all hands on deck. People are dying every day in this country,” he said.
“We all have to figure out how to keep them alive, keep them safe and help them heal.”
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Nenshi said the country’s lawmakers and medical professionals need to come up with a multi-faceted approach that works by getting to the root of the problem and addressing shortages in treatment facilities.
Nenshi said at least one person dies each week in Calgary because of an opioid overdose. He said there needs to be a new focus on addiction and treatment.
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“It is something that has simmered under the surface as a public policy issue for so long; we have to do so much better,” he said. “People need treatment options, they need prevention options and we’ve got to be able to work through that whole piece in a much smarter way than we have done.”
With files from Joe McFarland
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