MP hopes Manitoba meth crisis response will come out of parliamentary hearings

National hearings on the methamphetamine crisis in Canada will go ahead this fall, says the Winnipeg MP who pushed the parliamentary health committee to study the matter.

While opioid overdoses are major problems in other centres, Winnipeg has been struggling with a spike in meth use.

"Meth has been around since the mid- to late '90s, but over the last couple of years, the problem is exploding on the Winnipeg scene and [in] parts of Manitoba," said Liberal Doug Eyolfson, who represents the federal riding of Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley.

Eyolfson moved in April that the parliamentary standing committee on health study the impacts of methamphetamine "in order to develop recommendations on actions that the federal government can take, in partnership with the provinces and territories."

He hopes the committee hearings will lead the government to answers to why meth use has grown so much in Manitoba.

"That's one of the things that a lot of us are scratching our heads about," he said.

"It has shown up in this market and has basically taken off, and it's a bit of a mystery as to why. And it's just simply getting worse."

He also hopes the committee's findings will help lead to a federal strategy for dealing with meth. Currently, there isn't one.

Eyolfson and other MPs head back to Ottawa next week.

"Part of the motion was to have it done by December 2018," he said.

The hearings are expected to include experts from various medical fields (including public health), law enforcement and others with key perspectives on the crisis, Eyolfson said.

The committee will also look at possible funding for dealing with the problem or laws that can be changed to help address it.