Agriculture Committee on June 13th, 2018

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Luc Berthold]

Thank you, Mr. Longfield, for making my job easier. That's very nice of you.

Mr. MacGregor, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Mr. Rosser, I think I'll start my questions with you.

We've seen references to the farming community being quite a tough lot of individuals, and there's that stigma about talking about these things, but there are other professions in which this kind of condition has existed—in the military, for example, and in our first responders. Now the military has a culture where PTSD and mental health are openly talked about, and people are encouraged to seek help. It's the same with our first responders, the paramedics, the fire and police services.

Maybe one main difference is that those environments depend on teams where colleagues need to have the full support of each other, whereas farmers are often out by themselves, working long hours, with no one really to talk to. We can't change the variables that are inducing the stress. Are there any lessons your department could be learning from the Department of National Defence or Public Safety Canada? Are there any best practices for how they have dealt with the problem in their respective fields that might be applicable to agriculture?

[Tom Rosser]

That's a very constructive suggestion. To my knowledge, we have not actively engaged with colleagues at DND or Public Safety on issues related to mental health and their experiences, where they are perhaps more advanced and more experienced in dealing with the issues than we are.

When we talk about cultural change, we work very closely with agricultural associations and other industry groups across the country and often look to them to direct us in how we can be a helpful partner in changing the culture of the sector around mental health, as opposed to directing or trying to dictate things from the department.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

You mentioned that health care delivery, of course, is a provincial jurisdiction and you noted that budget 2017 had committed $5 billion over 10 years. However, that's to the pretty broad area of mental health and addiction services.

As we know, in provinces such as mine, British Columbia, the opioid crisis is front and centre. One of the strengths of the federal government is to ensure that we don't end up with a patchwork quilt of differing support systems.

What is Agriculture Canada doing to ensure that some of these funds are in fact being allocated to farmers so that someone in P.E.I. is getting the same type of services as someone in Saskatchewan?

[Tom Rosser]

I can't speak to the details of the Health Canada funding and the negotiations between the federal government and the provinces around the use of the money. We do take an active and growing interest in mental health in a rural context.

As I think Mike noted in his remarks, this is a relatively new issue for us, one in which we're very engaged, where we sense a lot of goodwill and a lot of momentum, where we want to be a productive partner. We're learning as we go forward in terms of how we can play a leadership role and be a good partner in addressing mental health issues.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Thank you.

I'd like both of you to comment on my next question.

Both of you made mention of making use of industry partnerships. Often farmers are out in the field by themselves dealing with very long work hours. However, there are certain times of the year when people in small communities do come together. I'm thinking specifically of fairs and agricultural exhibitions. We do have the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions, and I know at those events, particularly in my riding, you often see a Farm Credit Canada booth and an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada booth.

At those fairs, are your organizations starting to provide display material and pamphlets that people can come and pick up? Are those now an active part of your displays at fairs?

[Tom Rosser]

I would just comment briefly that the other place where you get a large gathering of producers is at annual general meetings of associations. I know the Canadian Federation of Agriculture dedicated a session to mental health at their gathering earlier this year, and the Canola Growers Association and others have, too.

We're amenable to being a good partner and certainly we'll take note of the suggestion that we use our presence at other sector events to raise awareness about tools and resources related to mental health.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Hoffort.

[Michael Hoffort]

From an FCC perspective, we come at this from a few different angles. We do a number of speaker sponsorships at association meetings and at major agriculture shows. Mental health would be one of the topics that we're really sponsoring into at this stage.

Canada's Farm Progress Show is a major dryland agriculture equipment show taking place next month here in Regina, Saskatchewan. We sponsor their speaker forum. There will be three days of speakers, and one day is designated for mental health. We'll have Michael Landsberg from TSN. He will be one of the speakers. He will be talking about his story with regard to mental health and the need to speak out and reach out to find support.

In terms of our booth presence, I don't think we have anything that would be quite in line with the depth that the member is suggesting. However, one of the initiatives we do have is to have a mental health tool kit by the end of this calendar year, a publication type of thing with solid, professional types of documentation about managing the pressure of the farm. We would distribute it widely and free of charge so that people would have something that they could hang on to, to reference in future times. That's one of the initiatives we are working on right now.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Luc Berthold]

Thank you very much, Mr. Hoffort.

Thank you as well, Mr. MacGregor.

It is now your turn, Mr. Peschisolido. You have six minutes.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Merci, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Hoffort and Mr. Rosser. It's great to see you again. I'd like to echo the comments of my colleagues that this is a very important study, and also thank Mr. Dreeshen for his focus and commitment to this.

I don't recall who it was, perhaps Mr. Barlow or Mr. MacGregor, who was talking about other sectors of society and what we can learn from them. In Vancouver there is a stigma within certain ethnic communities with regard to depression or suicide, as I think there is within the farming community. Farmers are tough, so no one wants to be weak. In what way can we quantify the problem? I don't think we have a full grasp of the extent of the situation, and before you can fix something, you have to figure out exactly where you are.

I'd like to ask both of you, Farm Credit and the ministry, what we can do to quantify things but in a fairly quick and accurate fashion.

[Tom Rosser]

I would simply note that we have reviewed the available literature on the incidence of mental health challenges in the agricultural sector. The numbers available are worrying. They suggest there is a significant problem disproportionate to the size of the population.

Again, the research available would appear to be fairly limited. I think in terms of quantification of the magnitude of the problem and the specific nature of the problem, there probably is scope for further research to better understand more precisely the nature of the problem and hopefully inform what some of the most promising solutions might be.

[Michael Hoffort]

From FCC's perspective, we would very much be anecdotally looking at what we're observing, be it through our crisis fund or through other interactions we have with customers and things that flow up into my office from our team. I couldn't agree more that some more study would be helpful to really understand the depth and the breadth of the issue just so we can take proper action. I couldn't agree more.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

I think another part of our strategy would be to go into the various farming communities and say, “Look, it's okay. It's okay to have issues. It's all right to deal with things in a certain way. It's not a sign of weakness.” Mr. Barlow talked about 4-H. I think where he would be going on that is how can we use organizations like 4-H to start talking about that issue at an earlier age.

[Michael Hoffort]

From an FCC perspective, 4-H is one of our significant sponsorships. We do focus a lot on youth in agriculture, and 4-H, of course, is a flagship organization, with over 25,000 members and 7,000 leaders. What we are working on with them right now is enhancing their healthy living program. Bringing in a focus on mental health is one of the key things to that. Their leaders can recognize it and they can sponsor and teach on the program. Also, their members have access to more awareness to break down some of these stigmas, for lack of a better term, that will help them, as they grow from young adults into adulthood, to have a different attitude than perhaps generations past have had on that subject.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. Rosser.

[Tom Rosser]

I'd only add that we too have a history of partnership with 4-H. To my knowledge, to date that has not included mental health, but we are in the early weeks of a new framework, and there are opportunities to take a look at things anew.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Other institutions or stakeholders within society are the schools, the colleges, and the universities. We understand that we live in a confederation, so there are a variety of jurisdictions. Generally speaking, what can be done to work with educational institutions, be they the colleges, the universities, the University of Guelph or Kwantlen in Steveston—Richmond East, to put a spotlight on it but also to say, “Hey, you know what? It is an issue, and let's deal with it in a proper way”?

[Tom Rosser]

Mr. Chair, I'd simply agree with the member.

Certainly, as a department, we have a very well-established relationship with the agricultural and veterinary colleges across the country and the institutions that bring them together. Although that relationship hasn't branched into mental health issues, one can easily imagine how by working through our traditional partners and having them reach out to the relevant faculties in their respective institutions, new ideas and new possibilities can emerge from that dialogue.

[Joe Peschisolido, Liberal, Steveston—Richmond East, BC]

Mr. Chair, I'm pretty well done now.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Luc Berthold]

Thank you very much. You're very generous with your time. It's too bad that I'm not on the other side to ask questions.

It is now over to Mr. Poissant, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

You have six minutes.

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

I'd like to begin by thanking Mr. Hoffort and Mr. Rosser. I'd also like to express my sincere thanks to the committee for examining this issue as it affects Canadian farmers.

Mr. Hoffort, you said earlier that your financial advisers had received training. Where did they receive the training, and was it provided by people in the mental health community?

[Michael Hoffort]

From a training perspective, what we've focused on with our team is mental health first aid. That's typically been done through partnership with Bridges Health, which is a professional organization involved in that space, or with other partners like that across the country.

The sponsorship we're working on with Do More Ag in our partnership is to take that same mental health first aid training to markets across the country and to allow a greater number of people to recognize when something is not as it should be, and to have the resources they need to at least stabilize the situation and get people pointed in the direction they need to be to get the help they require.

[Jean-Claude Poissant, Liberal, La Prairie, QC]

Most big businesses already have human resources in place to help employees when they go through a hard time in the workplace, but it isn't quite as easy to do in the agricultural sector.

I was involved in a Government of Quebec pilot project that lasted six years. The purpose was to assess the distress experienced by farmers. The project resulted in three highly informative reports showing how help could be provided to farmers.

Numerous cases of farmers in distress have been noted, so we need to address the issue at a fundamental level. Do you visit schools to talk about the challenges farmers can face? We all know how difficult the process of transferring a farm can be. Do you have opportunities to discuss those things?

[Tom Rosser]

I'd like to thank the parliamentary secretary for his question.

We are in touch with young farmers groups, and as far as I know, the issue of mental health hasn't led to any new partnerships. The new Canadian agricultural partnership, however, will provide an opportunity to have mental health discussions with those organizations and to set up partnerships that prioritize mental health.