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.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Andrew Campbell  Partner, Bellson Farms, As an Individual
Keith Currie  President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
Heather Watson  Executive Director, Farm Management Canada
Peter Sykanda  Farm Policy Analyst, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
Bev Shipley  Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC
Louise Bradley  President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada
Murray Porteous  Past National Labour Chair, Canadian Horticultural Council and Vice-President, Lingwood Farms Limited, As an Individual
Ray Orb  President, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Thank you, Ms. Bradley.

Mr. Longfield, you have six minutes.

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to all the witnesses.

I want to continue with Ms. Bradley. We had a round table earlier this year for which a lot of organizations from across Canada came to Ottawa. It was something that my office helped to coordinate. We looked at the connection between the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Mental Health Commission of Canada and others that are working. Could you maybe give us, for our report, the role that you see the Mental Health Commission of Canada playing, in terms of getting data, looking at measures of success or promoting mental health across the country? If you could do that in maybe 20 or 30 seconds that would be wonderful.

10:30 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada

Louise Bradley

I'll try my best.

I really think that one of the key issues right now in Canada is suicide prevention. With suicide there is a direct correlation between that and the non-existent services. The impact of not having the right services is just terrible. The commission has reached out for a second time to the federal government. We appeared before the finance committee just recently, and we've been going province by province. If we can tackle the issue of suicide in rural communities across this country, we will do a great service to Canadians.

That is definitely an issue that the CMHA and the commission are partnering in and collaborating on.

10:30 a.m.

Liberal

Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON

Great. Thank you.

You mentioned first responders. Last week we had a witness from Alberta who was also a volunteer firefighter. Because of his role in volunteer firefighting he also got stress from what he saw. Quite often he was the first on the scene.

Does the network of volunteer firefighters present an opportunity for us to help them and have them help other people? Is that something that's active, or something that's a future possibility?

October 16th, 2018 / 10:30 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada

Louise Bradley

We have actually trained thousands of first responders, including firefighters right across the country, for that specific reason. We use a self-assessment tool that was formerly called the Road to Mental Readiness and is now called The Working Mind. It addresses the issue of first responders having to deal with huge tragedies, including death, on an ongoing basis.

One police officer told me it saved his life. He went home to his wife and said, “I believe I'm in the orange category.” She said, “No, you're not. You're in red.” He got help and it saved his life. It was because of problems dealing with his work situation.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON

Mr. Orb, I can't help but think about Humboldt and the situation that your province has gone through, how it has been pulling people together, but also how it's an ongoing issue. It's beyond the headlines.

Could you give us a short update on how the province has reacted to the tragedy in Humboldt this year, and whether there are lessons the rest of the country can draw from that?

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Mr. Orb, can you hear us?

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON

My time is ticking. I will share my time with Mr. Breton. He has a lot of farmers in his community. I know he supports the dairy industry.

Over to you, Pierre.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC

Thank you very much, my friend.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Lloyd Longfield Liberal Guelph, ON

Sorry, would I be able to get an answer from Mr. Orb, either in writing or some other way? Thank you.

Back to Pierre.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC

Ms. Bradley, there are American studies that confirm what we are hearing today, namely, that being a farmer is one of the most stressful occupations in America.

Has the Mental Health Commission of Canada conducted similar studies on suicide and psychological distress among Canadian farmers? Are there comparable studies in Canada, or do the U.S. studies also apply to Canada?

10:35 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada

Louise Bradley

The Mental Health Commission of Canada has not engaged in any particular study of that nature. We certainly have done a great deal of work on suicide, which is something that is insufficiently addressed in every sector across the country. I have no reason to believe agriculture would be any different. In fact, it's likely worse, but we have not focused any studies on agriculture in that regard.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC

Thank you very much for talking about training and prevention for our farmers. That is one of the keys to success for our Canadian workers. As we heard this morning, it is not always easy for farmers to complete that lengthy training, since they often work 80 or 90 hours per week.

I know I am out of time. That said, this is an interesting discussion that should be continued to find solutions for training and prevention for our farmers.

Thank you for your testimony.

10:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Thank you, Mr. Breton.

Mr. Berthold, you have six minutes.

10:35 a.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

Thank you very much.

Mr. Porteous, I want to thank you for your testimony today. It was surely difficult for you to be here to talk about it and the fear of facing ESDC again. This is the kind of thing you must have in mind, but I thank you for that on behalf of this side and, I think, all of my colleagues.

Everyone here agrees that we must do something for farmers' mental health. We are a family. We are a group. All of us here want to do something, but do you know what? Since the beginning of this study I'm wondering why we don't address the buyers more, because a lot of people just don't know they are hurting you. They want to achieve their own goals. They want to achieve their work. They just don't know that they will hurt you the way they do. I think you have something to say about that.

10:35 a.m.

Past National Labour Chair, Canadian Horticultural Council and Vice-President, Lingwood Farms Limited, As an Individual

Murray Porteous

In probably regrettable words, I mentioned that people don't know what they're doing. They're good people, but they have a box to tick and they don't see the overall picture. They don't understand that taking a three- or four-month window out of a business puts that business in jeopardy or the amount of stress that puts on the family, which is horrendous.

Better communication and an overall goal of what you're actually trying to accomplish, which actually sees agriculture as a priority, would be a big help.

10:40 a.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

We also heard this morning from environmental groups and supposed animal rights groups, people who do not hesitate to flood social media with all kinds of information against ranchers and Canadians. I think we will have to do more than simply talk about it here. We will have to go beyond the network of farmers and the mental health community to address these situations. We have to show these people that there are human beings involved, because people seem to forget that behind every vegetable or slice of meat, there are human beings who work hard and who go through different situations.

Ms. Bradley, the Mental Health Commission of Canada has not studied farmers specifically, but I think that is essential because they are in a separate world. As we often hear and I can see for myself, farmers do not go home after work because they live in their workplace.

Do you think the Mental Health Commission of Canada has a role to play and should it conduct studies specifically about farmers?

10:40 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada

Louise Bradley

I think the short answer to that is, yes, there certainly can be. It has not been part of the mandate of the Mental Health Commission, but I can say that it is one that we would welcome. I believe we could do something to assist in that way, but up until now, it has not been part of the mandate of the commission.

10:40 a.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

In talking with the representative from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture earlier, I was surprised to learn that people are apparently just starting to understand that there are problems among farmers. Yet I know very well that these problems go back a very long time. Perhaps they were hidden, not as visible. Now they are coming into full view. I am not sure if it is because of social networks or because we are talking about it more. It seems that the worse the problems get, the more we talk about them, and the more problems we are causing.

I was a journalist before, and we were told at that time not to talk about suicide because it encouraged other people to take that drastic step. What is your opinion on this, Ms. Bradley? Where are we at exactly? What should we do as parliamentarians? Should we talk about it or not?

10:40 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada

Louise Bradley

There's no evidence to suggest that talking to somebody, if you have worries about them being suicidal, actually increases—in fact, it's quite the opposite. It is one of the components of the Roots of Hope, which is the program that I had mentioned.

10:40 a.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

I understand not to talk with them, but in the media—

10:40 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada

Louise Bradley

Oh, yes. Absolutely.

10:40 a.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

—the idea that it gives some publicity to this final option. What do you think about that?

10:40 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Mental Health Commission of Canada

Louise Bradley

I think that contagion is certainly an issue when you look at some of the first nation communities and among youth, and that is a very specific area. The commission has produced a document called Mindset, which is a guideline for reporters, about how to report on mental health issues and on suicide in particular. There is a right way of doing this and a wrong way. We have done the research and there are very clear steps and ways in which reporters can report on this.

10:40 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Thank you, Ms. Bradley.

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have. I certainly would like to thank the panel, Mr. Porteous and Ms. Bradley, for talking to us today.

Mr. Orb, I understand, had a power outage, but we will forward your questions and try to get an answer from him.

Just before you leave, I have three little things I want to share.

Thursday, October 18 is the deadline to submit recommendations in relation to the study of the advancement of technology in the agriculture industry that can support Canadian exports.

Friday, October 19 is the deadline to submit travel proposals for the period of January to March 2019.

On Monday, there will be the draft report prepared by the analysts. It will be distributed to all by email.

Also, I want to thank Monsieur Berthold.

He mentioned that this student was here with us.

I hoped you enjoyed the session.

Thanks for sitting through it. Hopefully it was helpful.

Thank you.