Evidence of meeting #107 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was help.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
We're basically running out of time. Sorry about that.
Mr. Shipley, for six minutes.
10:35 a.m.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Thank you very much.
Ms. Kelly, let me express my appreciation and thanks for what you and your husband have done to step up and be a voice. There is a generational thing here. If you could look around the table, you could find those of us who were impacted in the 1980s, and likely the generation that is more impacted now.
I forget whether it was you or Ron who said that in that generation some of the older guys—farmers, I should be saying, because in our case it was both my wife and I—were stepping up and saying, “You need to be doing something now.” I'm going to be honest with you, back then it was more reactive than on the preventative side.
Quite honestly, what we're trying to do on this preventative side is to build hope for people. Sometimes just walking alongside someone becomes such a help before we get to that serious stage.
In terms of the federal, provincial and local coordination, how is that working? Is there an openness at all levels to come together and coordinate? We're talking about funding, resources and research.
Let's start with you, Ms. Kelly; and then Ron may have a comment.
10:40 a.m.
Co-Founder, Do More Agriculture Foundation
In terms of coordination and getting access to resources and starting those conversations, when we approach partners for the opportunity to work together, we haven't had any push-back. It's just the awareness that Do More is out there, and that mental health and agriculture is a priority.
September 27th, 2018 / 10:40 a.m.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
How do you find professionals who know agriculture? I think that might be part of it. We've talked about that. If you don't understand it, the academic agriculture is a little hard to listen to sometimes.
10:40 a.m.
Co-Founder, Do More Agriculture Foundation
Finding resources that are ag specific is very hard. We've only been able to find a few, and that's more attributed to the farm stress line in Saskatchewan. I feel that is definitely a gap that we need to strive to have help with.
10:40 a.m.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Ron, is there a place for us, that group that went through some of those impacts earlier in the 1980s?
10:40 a.m.
President, Canadian Federation of Agriculture
I think there is. That's part of the reason I included a few comments about our personal experience. If I look back and think about what we went through, I see there were a number of us who went through it. We're on the borderline of getting into more severe mental illness. Some of us were lucky and had people who intervened at the time to help us through it.
I think there's a role for our generation to assist in this by stepping forward and acknowledging that there is a need to provide the services. Some of the services were there when my wife and I were going through this. They are no longer there. There used to be local, agricultural field people who could provide that type of advice, and they knew the individuals. With the changing world, those people are no longer there. One thing I talked about was taking a look at the curriculum and training, figuring out how we can have mentorship programs. Lloyd, you mentioned mentorship programs.
I think there are a number of those issues.
One thing that I think has been helpful is there has been a broader awareness now of mental health issues, not only in agriculture, but in the general public. I think that's helped farmers bring forward the discussion as well. It's not something that we feel we have to bury and just absorb ourselves. I think there's a role for both generations.
10:40 a.m.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
I really do want to touch on this whole social media thing and our children. I don't know if you want to look at it going down the ladder or coming back up it, but the stresses on those farming in our rural areas are not the same as some of the stresses in other industries. We have the production of food, which everyone needs. Then there are these people from outside the sector who are advocating very strongly against us and mainly not telling the truth. The research in being able to help, I hope that is done very strategically because there's nothing worse.... There was a report that came out where I found out there had actually been eight suicides and five of those had been children of parents. That is incredibly disturbing recognizing the industry that we're in, which is to sustain life with food. Then we get into these situations with people who don't have any idea about our industry. That is the key thing about getting the resources of people who understand our industry.
That may be more of a comment than a question, I guess.
How am I for time?
10:40 a.m.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
The 20 seconds doesn't work except for the time to say thank you so much for coming out and being part of this discussion, one that has taken us up the generation, and one that is here talking about what has happened and how the next steps can be preventable.
Thank you.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Shipley.
If you would permit me one comment, I thought today was great. We looked at many aspects of mental health on the farm, but I didn't hear too much about the whole family concept of it all.
I'm sure, Ms. Kelly, that you could probably talk about it, but on my farm I had my partner, my wife, who was my therapist, but I'm sure she felt the stress also, as did the children, although they don't talk too much about it. I'm hoping that in the next few months we'll be able to talk about that.
Following up on Mr. Longfield's comment about addiction, we were at a corn maze farm last week and it was a second- or third-generation farm. We were walking along and my wife kicked something. It was a bottle of rum or something and it was still full. There was no label on it. It was an old bottle. That's just to say this has been generational. I'm sure they used some form of alcohol as therapy.
Thank you so much, Mr. Bonnett. Of course, we have certainly heard from you before. Thanks for your wise comments.
I want to thank everyone for their contribution.
That's the end of our meeting.
(The meeting is adjourned.)