Your MP at Work
Kelly DeRidder, Member of Parliament for Kitchener Centre, believes addiction should never be a life sentence. She puts recovery at the center of her work on the drug crisis. Her Private Member's Bill, C-240, the Offender Rehabilitation Act, would expand rehabilitation opportunities and support abstinence-based recovery for offenders. Its goal is to help break the cycle of addiction and repeat crime. Kelly has spoken about the bill in the House of Commons and in interviews. She has also shared that she once experienced homelessness and addiction in Victoria Park.
Kelly's work is rooted in the community too. She toured the new HART Hub run by Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo, an abstinence-based place for people working toward recovery and stable housing. She also visited the Oasis Centre to see its support for people rebuilding their lives. She has spoken about how a restorative justice centre in Waterloo Region could help change lives, and how Bill C-229 could help make projects like it possible. She has also thanked police partners for their work against fentanyl trafficking.
Kelly also speaks about encampments in Kitchener and calls for clear paths to housing, treatment and recovery. Below are her latest posts, videos and House of Commons speeches on this issue.
88 posts, videos and speeches.
Facebook · July 25, 2026
Addiction should never be a life sentence. My Private Member’s Bill C-240 supports abstinence-based recovery, giving offenders the opportunity to overcome addiction, restore their lives, and reduce the cycle of crime. Recovery works.
Facebook · July 24, 2026
If you feel like life has knocked you down from addiction, financial hardship, or just trying to make it through another day, just know, hope is real. People can recover. Lives can change. That’s why I believe so strongly in Bill C-240 and the power of abstinence-based recovery
Facebook · July 22, 2026
$6 million a year for Kitchener’s tent city?! Every dollar spent should be focused on getting people the support they need and helping them move toward safer, more stable housing. We need solutions that deliver results, not allow people to stay stuck.
Facebook · July 11, 2026
Breaking the cycle of crime means investing in accountability, healing, and rehabilitation. A restorative justice centre in Waterloo Region could help change lives, and the passage of Bill C-229 would be an important step toward making initiatives like this possible.
Facebook · July 6, 2026
Healing starts with hope, community, and people who refuse to give up. It was a privilege to visit the Oasis Centre and see the life-changing work being done to support those rebuilding their lives. Thank you to everyone making a difference every day.
Facebook · July 2, 2026
My story is not unique. Across Canada, there are people battling addiction who need support, accountability, and a path forward. That’s why I introduced Bill C-240, which would expand rehabilitation opportunities and help break the cycle of addiction and crime.
Facebook · June 23, 2026
We should never confuse tolerance with compassion. Leaving people homeless and trapped in addiction isn’t helping them. Compassion means offering a path to housing, recovery, and a chance to rebuild their lives.
Facebook · June 18, 2026
ard treatment, recovery, and helping people rebuild their lives.
House of Commons · June 18, 2026
Canada; communities across the country continue to experience rising homelessness, ongoing substance use harms and increasing pressure on frontline services; the current approaches have not delivered the outcomes Canadians deserve; Canadians are demanding a renewed focus on prevention, early intervention, treatment, recovery, housing stability and community reintegration, with measurable outcomes that help individuals achieve long-term health, stability and independence; and it is important that federal investments support measurable outcomes, accountability and access to services that help Canadians achieve long-term recovery, stability and independence; the committee report to the House its recommendation that the Government of Canada: evaluate whether current approaches are achieving their intended outcomes and prioritize investments that demonstrate measurable results in treatment, recovery, housing stability, and long-term independence; and administer existing federal initiatives and funding commitments in a way that prioritizes: stronger access to treatment, recovery and mental health supports; expanded access to stable housing options, including transitional and supportive housing where appropriate; prevention and early interventions that reduce the risk of homelessness and substance use harms; measurable outcomes, accountability and long-term support for individuals seeking stability, recovery and independence; and collaboration among federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, indigenous and community partners to improve outcomes for Canadians affected by homelessness, addiction and related social challenges. Thank you, Chair.
Facebook · June 16, 2026
Addiction and homelessness are not moral failures. The Kitchener encampment ruling highlighted a difficult reality: we don’t have enough housing or recovery services. It’s time to invest more in treatment and recovery, and less in managing addiction indefinitely.
Facebook · June 4, 2026
Addiction has devastated families and communities across Canada. In this interview, we discuss Bill C-240, the importance of recovery-focused solutions, and why those struggling with addiction deserve a real path to healing.
House of Commons · June 1, 2026
we're seeing here in this country. One thing I think we haven't focused on yet today is how addiction surrounds homelessness and how it's a piece of the puzzle of what we're seeing in this country today. There is an encampment in Kitchener, where it was just ruled that the encampment is going to stay because housing needs to be provided, which you said is stifling progress. I agree with you, sir. Our office went and talked to 22 of those residents in that encampment, and of those 22, only one wasn't using. I think a piece of that is recovery services for addiction and focusing on your big, beautiful life on the other side of addiction. Can you just speak to how that transitional piece will help with focusing on stabilization and recovery for people trapped in addiction?
House of Commons · June 1, 2026
oday. I thank the Bloc Québécois members as well, so very much, for speaking to this bill and showing their support for it. I think the most important thing that we need to do at this point in time is reverse course in Canada. We need to start focusing on recovery and rehabilitation because people can and do recover. There is an encampment in Kitchener where we are quite literally killing people with kindness right now. In this encampment, five people have died from overdose, and it is time now that all levels of government came together and jointly worked together to fix this crisis in Canada. It is time to reverse course. Bill C-240 is the first step, introducing rehabilitation into incarceration. At least when someone has to be accountable for their actions, they would have a path forward when they are serving their time, to change their life, break cycles and turn their life around. We need to do this in Canada before incarceration, as well, so I am standing here today to thank members for their support in the House for Bill C-240 but also to declare that this is a pivotal moment in Canada. It is time now to concentrate on recovery and rehabilitation because on the other side of recovery is a happy, beautiful, healed and healthy life. Every single person who is struggling with addiction deserves that life, and it is time we helped them get there.
Facebook · June 1, 2026
There was a time I was homeless in Victoria Park and trapped in addiction, wondering if my life would ever look different. I know what it feels like to believe there’s no way out, and my PMB, C-240 is about helping others find one.
Facebook · May 31, 2026
Recovery is possible. Addiction does not have to define someone’s future, and people should never be written off because of where they’ve been. That’s why Bill C-240 matters because recovery, treatment, and real support need to be part of the solution.
Facebook · May 30, 2026
Addiction carries so much stigma, and too many people stay silent because of shame. By sharing our story and supporting Bill C-240, we want people to know recovery is possible and that every person deserves the chance to rebuild their life.
Facebook · May 29, 2026
Recovery has to be at the core of any serious response to the drug crisis. Keeping people alive matters, but so does helping them heal, rebuild, and actually get out of addiction. Compassion means helping people find a path forward, not leaving them stuck in these cycles.
Facebook · May 28, 2026
Real change happens when we stop managing cycles and start breaking them. That’s why Bill C-240 matters. Recovery, treatment, and long term support must be at the core of how we respond to addiction because people deserve a real path forward.
Facebook · May 28, 2026
What’s happening in these encampments is not humane. Leaving people surrounded by addiction, violence, trafficking and death is not compassion. Canadians deserve honesty about this crisis and solutions rooted in dignity, safety, recovery, and real support.
Facebook · May 27, 2026
Addiction is a silent crisis felt deeply in our homes and everyday lives. We all feel it across the country. My Private Member’s Bill, C-240 acknowledges the reality infront of us and helps bring our loved ones home happy, healthy, healed and drug free.
YouTube · May 27, 2026
Addiction is a silent crisis felt deeply in our homes and everyday lives. We all feel it across the country. My Private Member’s Bill, C-240 acknowledges the reality infront of us and helps bring our loved ones home happy, healthy, healed and drug free.
Facebook · May 27, 2026
Rehabilitation is a foundation of our justice system, and that must include incarceration. My Private Member’s Bill, Bill C-240, helps ensure inmates struggling with addiction have access to recovery supports and accountability.
Facebook · May 26, 2026
t is NOT humane to remain in a place where multiple people have already died. It is NOT humane for young girls to be trafficked in plain sight. It is NOT humane to live every day in a state of fear, hypervigilance, and survival mode. It is NOT humane to be trapped in addiction with no real pathway out. It is NOT humane to endure violence, untreated mental illness, and the harsh Canadian climate with no protection. Judges, lawyers, and activists may speak about compassion and empathy, but we cannot pretend that what is happening right now is humanitarian. IT IS NOT. Allowing people to remain in conditions that we would never accept for ourselves, our families, or our neighbours is not compassion. It is abandonment dressed up as empathy. As a society, we need to be honest: this is not working. We need solutions that are grounded in dignity, safety, and real support, not in maintaining the status quo because it feels morally comfortable. If we truly care about human rights, then we must be willing to do something different, because what we are doing now is failing the very people we claim to protect.
Facebook · May 18, 2026
This is personal to me. Behind my Private Member’s Bill, C-240 is heartbreak, loss and stories that are forever changed by drugs. This is why I will keep fighting for change.
Kelly's work in Ottawa is backed by volunteers and supporters here at home. A monthly donation of any size keeps the local team going, and political contributions earn a generous federal tax credit.