Barrie-Springwater-Oro Medonte MP Alex Nuttall has called for an emergency House of Commons debate about the local opioid crisis.
In a release, Nuttall says that since 2016, over 8,000 Canadians have died from the opioid overdose and that between 2016 and 2017 there was a 40 percent increase in the number of overdose-related deaths.
Nuttall says roughly 11 Canadians are dying every day from the epidemic and that the City of Barrie witnessed 36 deaths from opioid overdose in 2017.
Nuttall notes Barrie and the Simcoe Muskoka area have an opioid overdose rate that’s 4.5 per cent higher than the provincial average.
