Evidence of meeting #110 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 farmers.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON
And your personal mission is one of the grounding things: You're feeding Canada.
Partner, Bellson Farms, As an Individual
Yes, and it feels really good, but at the same time that adds to the pressure to say that if I don't get all the cheques written this year, what am I going to do next year? I'm not going to be doing that. I have to work to feed the family.
Liberal
Liberal
Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for your excellent testimony this morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Certain studies have pointed out that farmers rarely seek professional help to deal with anxiety, stress and mental health issues.
My question is very simple, and it is for Ms. Watson: why is that the case and what are the potential solutions?
Executive Director, Farm Management Canada
That's a very good question. Why aren't farmers consulting more than others are?
Perhaps it goes back to what Andrew was saying earlier. There's this stigma about the strong and silent type. Agriculture just keeps going. Also, we're 2% of the population. When you're looking at priorities and you're looking at where the major issues in the population are, often agriculture gets overlooked because it has always been there, and hopefully it always will be there, because we need to eat.
I think now is the time to stand up and say.... As I said in my speech, agriculture is different. Farming is different. We say that all the time, and we're not shy to say it because we do think it's completely different. As Alistair was saying before, the risks space and the compounding risks are things no other sector would ever see.
I'm not sure why it hasn't been looked at before, but I'm really excited that we are looking at it now. I think we can make some huge, positive waves by addressing agriculture specifically, and women in farming specifically and just unpacking all the bits and pieces.
Liberal
President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
I think part of the problem is that, because we're all individual business owners and we work on the landscape, we don't interact with a lot of people, so these problems get compounded because we think we're all by ourselves all the time. We do go to the coffee shop, and we brag about our new equipment, and we lie about our yields. We talk about our grandkids, but we don't talk about our issues back on the farm. I think that's part of the problem, because outside of family, we spend so much time by ourselves, so we haven't felt comfortable in saying, “I have a problem. I'm under pressure here, and I don't know what to do about it." I think that's a big part of the problem.
To Heather's point, I'm so happy that now there's a federal committee looking at it. We've had a lot of conversations. Twitter has been fantastic from an exposure standpoint. I don't understand the bullying aspect. If you did that across the street in a place where you work, you'd be charged with harassment, but it's okay to do it online. I don't understand why there's a difference, but we have to deal with that as well. Again, we're dealing with it on our own, so there's that individual pressure of whether we are alone, and we don't know.
Liberal
Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC
A young farmer who is a friend of mine told me that he went to see his doctor because he was not well. His doctor told him he would need to get away from work to feel better. Like the vast majority of farmers, however, his house is right on his farm. He was willing to stop working, but at home he could hear all the noises of his farm and saw the employees and tractors moving around. That was obviously not the answer.
We need to find other solutions for our farmers, such as respite houses away from farms. It is not like someone who works at a factory or for an organization who leaves their workplace completely when they go home. It is completely different for farmers.
Mr. Campbell, as a farmer, can you tell us the three main triggers of stress or mental health problems among farmers?
Partner, Bellson Farms, As an Individual
Probably the number of hours in a day is one. Certainly you talk about taking that break, taking that vacation time, or even taking the time to go out to visit with somebody else. Certainly there are times of the year when there is no way I can leave the farm because all I would do is sit there and shake with the stress of talking about my stress with somebody else.
Certainly that creates one pretty enormous challenge: Where is that priority, and what should I be doing in a day?
I think the biggest one, though, remains the financial aspect. So many of the problems that we have—whether they be weather, crop prices, the price of equipment, or whatever—always go back to, at least in the back of my mind, that it's going to mean less income. Where am I going to find more income somewhere else this late in the year? That really probably is the biggest factor for most, and that financial aspect probably is tied to most of the issues. Can you make it to the end of the year and into the next?
Third—at least around our place— is probably still that succession, that family dynamic. It's really easy to say we'll separate the business side and the personal side, so whatever you say on the business side, we won't take it personally at suppertime. Well, that doesn't always work very well. The ability to manage the family relationship at the same time as the business relationship with exactly the same people can certainly create stress.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Thank you, Mr. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Breton.
Now we have Mr. Shipley and Mr. Dreeshen.
Bev Shipley Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses. I just want to say thank you to Andrew Campbell for stepping out—he's a neighbour. With regard to that #farm365, I can only imagine the stress that comes when it's not just you but your family receiving those comments, many of them from animal rights organizations or those who think we're poisoning the world by growing good crops. I just thank you for doing it. Now you're out helping us advocate as farmers and talking about Fresh Air Media. That's what yours is, I guess.
I just want to say thank you to all of you for coming out.
I really do want to touch on, though, the impacts that are happening. We've had individuals here who have talked about the situations. It isn't just the individuals. A few of us can remember back to the eighties. We know very much the stress that goes on, not just for the farmer but for those in the whole family. I agree with my colleague that our wives, our spouses, carry that same load.
Heather, you talked about the stress on women. They do carry it differently. They really do. I can't speak for everyone, but we tend to take things up here a little higher and they tend to dig in, because the kids are closer and they feel that responsibility.
How do we reach out? Do we know organizations?
Keith, you have the OFA. How do we reach out for professionals who are not just academic professionals but actually professionals who have some life experience on the ground and actually understand what some of those situations are? Maybe they've walked through them, or maybe they have had family who have walked through them. Are those people available?
President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
They are not available en masse, no. I think we have to continue to talk about it. We have to continue to advertise that there's a desperate need for that. The comment about going to the medical doctor who wanted to remove you from the farm or from the workplace is a fair one, because it happens all the time, because the medical field is not trained to deal with mental wellness. We need more input into getting training for them to understand it and say, “I don't know how to fix it, but I know where to send you to get some help.” It's a collaboration; it's the whole system. We need resources for the farm communities, but we need resources for the medical community as well. When we combine those efforts, then I think we'll start to see the improvements we need. It's not going to happen quickly, but if we don't start, it's never going to happen.
So I think collectively we need to sit down. As Peter said earlier, we need a long-term strategic plan on how we're going to tackle this and accomplish this. We can go to our members on the ground and have a conversation with them, but we need the medical field to be able to do the same with their colleagues, as well.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Are there any other comments? We understand the professional, academic side. What about the use of young people who come up through 4-H, the advanced leadership program, Canadian Young Farmers' Forum and junior farmers? Have there been contacts and working relationships in coordinating come-alongside projects with these organizations?
President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
I know we certainly have been reaching out both on the provincial side and on the federal side, through the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, but it's still all over the map. We really need to start to hunker down and figure out how we coordinate all these like voices so that we're spending the resources wisely and we're all going through this together and we're not trying to reinvent the wheel all over the place.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Is there something federally that we can help with, in that coordination, whether it's through Agriculture Canada or through Health Canada? And if there is—that may not be a fair question to ask you right now, but if there's something that any of you can forward to us in terms of your thoughts on bringing that together, I would very much appreciate it.
President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
I'll turn it over to Heather in a minute, but I think Peter hit it by starting with some research in this area. We have to have the research to understand what exactly we need, and then we can go forward with putting things in place.
Executive Director, Farm Management Canada
Yes. I would just add quickly that I think we need a platform to keep the conversation going on a national level, but with regional integration as well—somewhere the health experts, the mental health experts and the agriculture experts can actually come together. Maybe it starts with a summit or something, but a place where you come together and talk about the different pieces that we need to unpack and then come up with a strategy to address those.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Andrew, where does your social media come in on that?
Partner, Bellson Farms, As an Individual
As Heather mentioned, just creating that network is probably one of the really important things we can do. Using that as a tool, it is really quite easy to say here's that resource or at least here's that organization that will find you the resource you need. I think the big challenge for a young farmers' forum, a professional doctor, or anybody is to point out and ask where to go. Well, if we have one umbrella, maybe that's a beginning point.
Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Can we as a federal government help on the prevention side? With that being on social media, can we actually promote agriculture and the healthy lifestyle? I'm not sure we're actually doing enough of that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
I'll allow that.
We have very little time. I'll allow a question from Mr. Peschisolido, who is next.
