The Green Party prides itself in being able to put aside partisan politics and cooperate with other parties to get work done for citizens. And we believe in giving credit to other political parties for doing the right thing, as opposed to just criticizing their mistakes.

Ontario’s Liberal government, and in particular Ottawa Centre’s M.P.P. Yasir Naqvi, deserve credit for reviving Ottawa’s Safer Inhalation Program.

The Safer Inhalation Program provides clean crack pipes to Ottawa’s users in an effort to prevent sharing of dirty crack pipes, which can spread Hepatitis C and potentially HIV.

ASIDE: A new study was published by Canadian researchers in January 2008 documenting the transmission of Hepatitis C virus on crack pipes used by Hepatitis C-positive users in Toronto. If you have access to scientific journals you can read the study itself (citation below), otherwise you can read the CBC summary of the study.

Fischer, B., Powis, J., Cruz, M.F., Rudzinski, K., & Rehm, J. 2008. Hepatitis C virus transmission among oral crack users: viral detection on crack paraphernalia. European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology 20(1): 29-32.

The Safer Inhalation Program was successful at reducing pipe sharing among crack users, but was cancelled by Ottawa City Council in July 2007 on the basis of ideology and rhetoric, instead of pragmatism and logic. The Ontario Ministry of Health had supplied about 75% of the program’s funding, but the city’s cancellation of its 25% contribution threatened the program’s future.

During the October 2007 provincial election, your Ottawa Centre Greens advocated for the Safer Inhalation Program. We were pleased to see that the local candidates for the Liberal (Yasir Naqvi) and New Democratic (Will Murray) parties also supported the program at the provincial level (read their comments in a Canoe News story, cited at bottom of page). We wondered, though, whether their support for the program would disappear once they were elected, as happens to so many political promises.

Yasir Naqvi was elected Ottawa Centre’s Member of Provincial Parliament (M.P.P.), and we are happy to report he has kept his promise! He advocated for the Safer Inhalation Program to the Liberal Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, The Honourable George Smitherman. Minister Smitherman agreed that the data suggests the program is both cheap and effective, and his ministry will pick up its entire tab.

Which brings us back to the Green Party’s policy of giving credit where credit is due. Yasir Naqvi deserves credit for keeping a contentious promise (and quickly too), and praise for advocating for the health of his local citizens on this matter. This is what an elected representative should do. We congratulated Mr. Naqvi by e-mail and phone, and requested he send us a quote so we could congratulate him publicly on this website. He agreed that Ontario needs more cooperation among its political parties, and supplied us with the following quote:

“Our government made the decision to fund the Safer Inhalation Program in Ottawa because we recognize the important role it plays in our community. I had spoken to Minister Smitherman during his visit in November about how hard the health care community in Ottawa has worked to improve services available to those suffering from addictions. I am pleased in his decision to extend the funding for the Safer Inhalation Program, and I look forward to continuing to work with Minister Smitherman to ensure that the residents of Ottawa Centre get the health care services they need right here in their own community.”
Yasir Naqvi, Ottawa Centre M.P.P., in e-mail to Green Party of Ontario (Ottawa Centre) executive member Jay Fitzsimmons, January 23, 2008.

Thank you, Mr. Naqvi. And thank you, Ontario Liberals. Now just implement the rest of the Green Party’s platform, and we will be ecstatic!

• For Green Party of Ontario in Ottawa Centre press release during election campaign, advocating for Safer Inhalation Program:
  www.ottawagreens.ca/ottawacentre/?p=195
• For Green Party of Ontario in Ottawa Centre page with more detailed information on Safer Inhalation Program, including links to an official report detailing results of the program:
  www.ottawagreens.ca/ottawacentre/?p=181
• For Canoe News story reporting Ottawa Centre’s provincial election candidates’ advocacy for the Safer Inhalation Program:
  cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/OntarioVotes2007/News/Green/2007/09/24/4521094-sun.html
• For Toronto Star story reporting criticism of the Liberals’ support of the Safer Inhalation Program, including criticism from NDP M.P.P. Andrea Horwath (Hamilton Centre). Perhaps Ms. Horwath should discuss the program with Ottawa Centre NDP candidate Will Murray, who supported the program.
  www.thestar.com/News/article/295438