Canada’s Health Minister is pleased to see a bit of a decline in the number of overdose deaths in B.C. through the first five months of this year.

However, while speaking in Kamloops, Ginette Petitpas Taylor says she is cautiously optimistic that the worst of the opioid crisis is behind us.

“When we look at our numbers that we are losing one Canadian every two hours, that is still very alarming,” she said. “We recognize as a government however that harm reduction including that in our Canadian drug strategy has been extremely beneficial. We recognize that harm reduction saves lives.”

There were 462 overdose deaths province-wide between January and May of this year, including 18 in Kamloops.

Petitpas Taylor says 11,577 Canadians have lost their life to an apparent opioid-related overdose between 2016 and 2018.

“That is 11,577 families have been without a mother, a father, a brother, a sister or a friend. We really need to acknowledge each and every live that we have lost. These aren’t just figures on a balance sheet. These are human beings.”

She went on to say the overdose crisis is the most pressing issue for her.

“It was the first file that I was briefed on when I became the Minister of Health,” she added. “It is the most significant public health issue that the country has been dealing with in recent history. We are working hard to turn the tide on this national public health crisis.”

B.C. declared an public health emergency because of the overdose crisis on April 14, 2016.