This view breaks the statement into its steps and names what each one does.
Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 10 wordsI appreciate the ability to speak today on Bill C-240.Procedure Anecdote · 32 wordsThis touches my heart, because I would imagine that for all MPs sitting in this room, no matter where they are sitting today, their lives have changed and their communities have changed.Anecdote Claims · 16 wordsI know all Canadian cities have changed, including all communities in the Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay riding.Partly on point Procedure · 12 wordsI want to speak a bit about the city I live in.Procedure Anecdote · 5 wordsPenticton is a beautiful city.Anecdote Claims · 44 wordsIt is a place where people have always wanted to come to vacation, and possibly even retire, if they reach that point in their lives and have saved up enough money, because, of course, our housing is expensive, like it is in many communities.Off point Positioning · 12 wordsUnfortunately, our city, like so many, is filled with chaos right now.Positioning Aside · 16 wordsI hope everyone here knows they can go and enjoy the city and enjoy the area, AsidePartly on pointClaims · 49 wordsbut there is chaos because crime rates are skyrocketing. In fact, it was announced last week by our first responders that overdose rates in Penticton increased by nearly 500% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of 2025.1 This was reported by our fire department. Anecdote · 49 wordsImagine what being a first responder in Penticton is like right now, when all they are doing is constantly going out to calls and trying to bring people back to life. Imagine how difficult it would be for them psychologically to not fight fires, like they were trained to.AnecdotePartly on point Claims · 327 wordsWe do not have a lot of fires anymore, except for quite a few that are caused by people who are homeless and on the streets.Off point Instead, our first responders are constantly going out and injecting people with some type of drug to try to bring them back to life. Sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are not. It has ruined our community and our most vulnerable people, who are those are on drugs and living on our streets. It has also ruined our community for many vulnerable people, as we have a very large senior community.Partly on point Going back to Bill C-240, the bill aims to amend the Criminal Code to empower judges to prescribe structured rehabilitation programs for individuals whose offences stem from circumstances that can be addressed through skills development, education and recovery as part of a holistic healing process. It is important to know that in Similkameen—South Okanagan—West Kootenay, which is a very big riding in the B.C. interior, there is not one detox bed available.2 In fact, as a city councillor, a couple of years ago, I was given a presentation by leaders in the community who were addressing this issue. I asked them a question. If someone were to come into our city council meeting right then and say, “I am a drug addict. I want help. I want to go back to my family”, how long would it take for that person to get into a detox bed or a rehab bed? By the way, this was in public. Members can look this up from the City of Penticton’s council meeting two years ago. They told the city council that it would take two years for that person to be given any type of detox bed or any type of rehabilitation.3 They also said it would not be in our huge riding. They would have to leave the community in two years and go to another community to get help. Positioning · 10 wordsWe all know what would happen in those two years.PositioningUnearned certainty Aside · 13 wordsI am sure I will get letters saying, “No, it’s not two years.”Aside Claims · 19 wordsMaybe it has gotten better, and hopefully it has, but it would still be at least half that time. Reasoning · 29 wordsWe need to give people the ability to go back to their families, and we also need to keep people behind bars who are not safe for our communities. Claims · 59 wordsSome of the residents I represent are afraid of even going to the grocery store anymore to shop because there are erratic people walking down the aisles. There has been a huge issue, obviously, since the pilot project to decriminalize drugs in B.C. That was a great experiment put together by the Liberal government and the NDP provincial government.4 Positioning · 26 wordsI would like to ask everyone in this great room today, would they like to try that decriminalization project? Let us just see what might happen.Positioning Claims · 12 wordsBritish Columbia has the most deaths from fentanyl in the world now.5 Positioning · 8 wordsThe genie is out of the bottle now.Positioning Claims · 31 wordsSure, the decriminalization project has been declared over, but we have not found out the complete chaos that was caused by it; the numbers are not out yet. That will happen, Promise · 21 wordsand we will bring them, hopefully, before the Standing Committee on Health, which I sit on, and get the complete numbers, Positioning · 6 wordsbut do we really need them?Positioning Claims · 17 wordsWe all know that thousands and thousands of people have died in British Columbia from that project.6Unearned certainty Positioning · 19 wordsI do not see anyone representing any other province wanting to come forward and try it for their communities.Positioning Thanks · 7 wordsI want to thank MP DeRidder, who— ThanksAn hon. member: You cannot use the name. Helena Konanz: Procedure · 4 wordsExcuse me, Mr. Speaker.Procedure Thanks · 15 wordsI thank the MP for bringing forward this bill, and I want to quote her.Thanks Claims · 33 wordsShe said Bill C-240 “would empower courts to prescribe structured rehabilitation measures, including education, skills training and treatment programs, to be undertaken during custody.7 These are not soft-on-crime measures. They are smart-on-recovery interventions.” Reasoning · 13 wordsWe have to give people the opportunity to go back to their families. Claims · 133 wordsI was given a tour, as a city councillor a couple of years ago, of the penitentiary in my riding, the Okanagan Correctional Centre. At that time, the warden told us city councillors that it was 25% full.8 We have one of the highest crime rates, in Penticton and area, in all of B.C., per capita, 9and our correctional centre is only 25% full. The leaders in the community, the mayors of all the cities in the valley, have sent a letter to the province asking to use that correctional centre for exactly what the MP for Kitchener Centre is asking for: 10to provide rehabilitation measures, education, skills training and treatment, to give these people a chance to go back out in the world and back to their families, if they are able. Reasoning · 23 wordsIf they cannot, if they are dangerous people, as we know there are, then they should not be released as they have been. Claims · 10 wordsThis bill would also allow court-ordered rehabilitation measures for offenders. Reasoning · 24 wordsI believe everyone in this great hall knows that people get to a point in their drug use where there is no going back.Unearned certainty Thanks · 11 wordsI want to thank, again, the MP for bringing this forward, ThanksThe ask · 9 wordsand I hope everyone here votes to support it.
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