Opioid crisis

In 2017, the Mayors’ Task Force on the Opioid Crisis put forward comprehensive recommendations for coordinated, nation-wide action by all orders of government.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Chair of the FCM's Big City Mayors' Caucus' (BCMC) Task Force on the Opioid Crisis, issued the following statement in response to Health Canada's new initiatives to fight the opioid crisis.

"The opioid overdose crisis is having a devastating impact on Canadian families and communities, with thousands of lives lost to preventable causes. It's also taking a heavy toll on our cities' first responders, front-line workers and community volunteers, who are working around the clock to save lives.

FCM's Big-City Mayors' Caucus (BCMC) released its report on the opioid crisis today, calling for coordinated, pan-Canadian action by all orders of government to solve the opioid crisis, which has already claimed thousands of lives and continues to escalate.

As British Columbia marks the one-year anniversary of the fentanyl crisis being declared a public health emergency, the Mayors' Task Force on the Opioid Crisis is releasing its initial recommendations to the federal government to better deal with opioid addictions and overdoses across Canada, focusing specifically on the lack of data collection and information sharing.

More and more Canadians are dying from opioid overdoses. FCM’s Big City Mayors’ Caucus launched a task force to share best practices and save more lives.