Liberal MP Fry says feds would speed up action on fentanyl if Ontario impacted
OTTAWA — A Liberal MP is speaking out about what she considers a frustratingly slow response by her own federal government to the crisis of fentanyl, a potent opioid linked to more than 500 overdose deaths last year in B.C. and Alberta alone.
“I feel it’s something we need to be doing something about faster than we are doing it,” Hedy Fry, the longtime Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre, said in an interview.
The number of Canadian deaths from fentanyl — often used to cut other drugs, such as heroin, cocaine or oxycodone — is highest in B.C. and Alberta, prompting Fry to suggest that a regional bias, albeit unintentional, might be at play.
“I think that it is that the whole country isn’t suffering from the same problem — it’s B.C. and Alberta,” Fry said. “It’s now starting in Ontario, and I would suggest to you that once it gets bad in Ontario, we will notice action being taken.”