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CBC
20 minutes ago
- CBC
'No plans' to renew safer supply funding after federal support quietly runs out
Social Sharing Dozens of safer supply pilot programs lost federal funding earlier this year and Ottawa says there are no plans to re-up its financial support. Starting in 2020, Health Canada provided financial backing to 31 programs across the country that offered "prescribed alternative" opioids to people with addictions. The overdose crisis has rocked Canada over much of the past decade. Health Canada reports that more than 52,000 people have died of an apparent opioid overdose since 2016. Almost three-quarters of those deaths involved fentanyl. According to Health Canada, it only takes a few grains of fentanyl to kill someone. The goal of safer supply programs is to offer prescribed, safer alternatives to illegal street drugs like fentanyl. In recent years, reports have also indicated that illicit opioids have become increasingly laced and contaminated with other substances — including drugs never meant for human consumption, like the animal tranquilizer known as xylazine — making the street supply even more dangerous. Federal funding sunset at the end of March, but Health Canada told CBC News in a statement that "there are currently no plans to resume previous projects or fund new [prescribed alternatives] projects." The federal government is still providing funding for a number of other harm-reduction and treatment initiatives. Rob Boyd, CEO of Ottawa Inner City Health, told CBC News that his organization's prescribed alternative program was able to maintain support for most of its clients. "We knew that the program was about to end, that the funding was about to end. So we had a mitigation strategy in place," he said. But the lack of funding has meant that the program hasn't been able to take on new clients. "We really do need to scale up harm reduction rather than to pull back," Boyd said. Beyond prescribed alternatives, Boyd's organization provides access to other health services and housing supports. "It really is about providing access to physical, mental and substance use health care for people," he said. "Sometimes that includes medications, and sometimes it doesn't." When asked if the Liberals are considering further funding for safer supply programs, a spokesperson for Health Minister Marjorie Michel didn't directly answer the question. But they suggested there are "many ways" the government is addressing the overdose crisis. "We are using every tool available to connect people to care, address urgent local challenges and keep our communities safe, including measures at our border to detect and disrupt the fentanyl trade and other toxic drugs," Guillaume Bertrand, Michel's communications director, told CBC News in an email. Even if the federal government renewed its funding, Ottawa Inner City Health and other Ontario programs wouldn't be allowed to apply without permission from the provincial government — a new rule in Ontario's Community Care and Recovery Act that took effect this spring. Safer supply — and harm-reduction programs in general — have been a point of attack for the federal Conservatives against the governing Liberals in the past year. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly called on the government to dial back harm-reduction policies and instead focus more on treatment. Katy Merrifield, a spokesperson from the leader of the Official Opposition's office, told CBC News in a statement that a Conservative government would end "drug liberalization experiments." "Liberals disproportionately fund programs focused on stigma, harm reduction and vague references to 'wrap-around care.' Their reckless choices have destroyed countless families and made our communities unrecognizable after years of crime and decay," Merrifield said. One of the concerns around prescribed alternative programs is that the drugs get diverted to the street supply. British Columbia changed its program earlier this year — to require people to take the prescription in front of a pharmacist — in an effort to clamp down on diversion. But NDP health critic Gord Johns argues prescribed alternatives can save lives. He said it is "heartbreaking" that the government hasn't reintroduced funding. "This is not leadership, it is neglect. People are dying and this government is choosing politics over evidence, and ideology over action," Johns said in a statement. Boyd pushed back on the idea that the prescribed alternative program hasn't been helpful. "It's unfortunate that right now there has been this anti-harm-reduction and anti-safer-supply narrative that's out there that is not really consistent with what the evidence is showing," he said. "If the water is contaminated, you bring in clean water. [If] lettuce is contaminated, you pull it off the shelf and then you source lettuce that is not going to harm people." The latest report published by Ottawa's safer supply program suggests that it was having some success — 85 per cent of clients surveyed reported a decrease or halt in their fentanyl use. "We've demonstrated that they are actually very effective programs and they should be part of the toolkit," Boyd said. "We never said it was going to solve every problem because we're not naive enough to think that."
CBC
20 minutes ago
- CBC
Ship noise in Arctic silences narwhals, alters their movements, study says
New research on narwhals in Nunavut's Eclipse Sound suggests the animals may be more sensitive to shipping noise than scientists previously believed, and that they change their behaviour when ships are nearby. The study, published earlier this month in the journal Nature, says narwhal stop echolocating and will vacate an area when exposed to low-pitched ship noise. It also says the marine mammals are sensitive to sounds more than 20 kilometres away. "It seemed to be an understood fact prior to our research that narwhal were only affected in close range, but when you speak to the hunters and the elders, that's just not been the case," said Alex Ootoowak, a researcher from Pond Inlet, Nunavut, and one of the co-authors of the study. He is with the Oceans North acoustic monitoring program. The study backs up hunters' observations around mining projects in the region, such as the now-closed Nanisivik mine, and their belief that narwhals are more sensitive to shipping noise than existing marine shipping noise guidelines recognize, said Ootoowak. "People seem to appreciate that our research is proving what's long been understood and known here," said Ootoowak. The research will be used to assess and mitigate impacts of mine shipping, cruise ships and yachts trying to enter the Northwest Passage, he said. For the last decade, Oceans North partnered with Pond Inlet's Mittimatalik Hunter Trappers Organization (MHTO) and the California-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography to study how narwhal react to ship noise in Eclipse Sound, near Pond Inlet, where they return each summer to feed in deep, plentiful waters. According to the new study, narwhal numbers in Eclipse Sound in summer appear to have declined by about 90 per cent in the last two decades, from an estimated 20,200 animals in 2004 to 2,081 animals in 2021. Ootoowak calls the change over the years "sad." As a teenager, his dad would take him on long trips to hunt and live off the land. The waters were so plentiful that sleep would be an issue. "You're just constantly hunting and watching and enjoying the views of hundreds and hundreds of narwhal pass by," he said. "I want the later generations to see what I saw," he said. The researchers also state that between 2015 to 2019, there was a 384 per cent increase in the number of vessels transiting through the Eclipse Sound — with 80 per cent of those vessels connected to regional mining activity, and the other 20 per cent to tourism. Inuit hunters in the region were the first to notice the changes in narwhal surface behaviour and population numbers as the first shipments of ore went out from Baffinland's Mary River Mine in 2015, said Kristin Westdal, science director at Oceans North and another of the report's co-authors. She said narwhal were spending less time diving, a behaviour usually indicative of feeding, and changing direction of travel when they encounter a ship. The data can help answer the question of how much noise is too much for the animals, she said. "It's interesting and also alarming when you can pinpoint that position at which the animals stop talking or disappear from that habitat," she said. The research will inform the interim management plan for Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area, as well as future protected areas, according to Westdal. She said it will also be used by the Nunavut Impact Review Board when looking at projects like the Mary River Mine. Studying echolocation The researchers used echolocation clicks of narwhals and satellite data to measure the distance of ships from their recorders. They analyzed how narwhal responded to the sound of ships passing through the area. "These echolocation clicks are associated with important functions like foraging, finding food or navigating," said Joshua Jones, a project scientist overseeing the research with Oceans North and the MHTO. Previous studies found impacts within 10 kilometres of ships, and "strong avoidance" among narwhals of areas within one kilometre of passing ships, the study states. The new research suggests narwhals are even more sensitive to sound than other species they've been compared to such as killer whales or dolphins, and show behavioural changes when ships are within 20 kilometres, said Jones. Narwhals are sensitive to noise below 1 kHz, said Jack Ewing, staff research associate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego and another of the report's co-authors. That's a lower pitch than previous research has suggested the animals were senstive to. Narhwals also react to broadband sound pressure levels well below 120 dB, Ewing said.
CBC
4 hours ago
- CBC
Can virtual care services solve the health-care staffing crisis in rural B.C.?
On Monday, a peer-reviewed study found that an initiative called the Real-Time Virtual Support network helped improve access to health care in rural B.C. Lead author Kendall Ho, a professor at the University of B.C.'s department of emergency medicine, said it was important to pair virtual care with an increase in in-person health facilities. Dr. Gavin Parker, president of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada, argues that while virtual care programs are beneficial, there are also opportunities to increase funding to rural communities.
