Agriculture Committee on Oct. 30th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Welcome, everyone.

Today, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we have a study of the mental health challenges that Canadian farmers, ranchers and producers face.

With us today for our first hour, from my home province of New Brunswick, from the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick, we have Ms. Lisa Ashworth, Director, Region 6, Board of Directors. That was formerly Mr. Harvey's region.

Also, from Issues Ink, we have Shawn Brook, President, by video conference from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Devyn Brook, Community Manager with the Do More Agriculture Foundation.

Also, from the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc., we have Eduardo Huesca, Community Outreach and Program Coordinator, Migrant Worker Health Project, Hamilton; and also Michelle Tew, Occupational Health Nurse, Hamilton Clinic.

Welcome, everyone. We will start with six-minute opening statements.

Ms. Ashworth, would you like to begin? Thank you.

[Lisa Ashworth, Director, Region 6, Board of Directors, Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

As you just heard, my name is Lisa Ashworth, and I am pleased to speak with you today on behalf of the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick. Our organization is the voice of the farmers in our province, and mental health is actually a topic that we have been talking about a lot lately, about what we need to do and how to get there.

It's encouraging that producers are beginning to publicly acknowledge that many of us and our peers have mental health challenges, but it is also bringing to light the fact that the issues facing the agricultural sector are unique, and that there are many deficiencies and gaps in the services available if producers do ask for help.

When I received the email asking me to make this presentation a few days ago, I had to chuckle because I felt that typified the stress in a farm family. Your day is packed. You're behind schedule. You have deadlines you're not meeting, and then you check your messages and you get asked to do just one more thing. You say, “Sure, I'd love to do it”, because it's important and because someone has to get it done. Farmers and their families are people who get things done. That's our culture, but the strong work ethic often comes with a high price. We're finally, thankfully, starting to talk about the price of that.

In doing some background reading, I found it very interesting to note that no matter which scientific journal I chose an article from, there was recognition that farmers are at high risk of having or developing mental health problems due to the unique nature of what we do.

The International Journal of Social Psychiatry begins an article way back in 2005 by reporting, “Farmers experience one of the highest rates of suicide of any industry and there is evidence that those involved in farming are at higher risk of developing mental health problems.”

If we cross the ocean, the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health concluded an article by stating, “Farmers had higher odds of having high depression scores compared to both other occupational groups and their siblings who were not working as farmers”.

If all the research shows that our profession predisposes us to mental health challenges, the obvious first step is to ask, “Why?”, which is what we're doing. A 2013 article that caught my eye had quite a handle for a title. It read, “International Perspectives on Psychosocial Working Conditions, Mental Health, and Stress of Dairy Farm Operators”. It contained some information that you've already heard from previous speakers on this panel. It said:

Dairy farm operators...are faced with many demands and stressors in their daily work...farms are highly dependent on external conditions, such as weather, fluctuating markets, and regulations from government authorities. Possible external stressors include disease outbreaks, [tax issues], and recent negative societal attitudes to farming... High work demands and expectations coupled with low control and lack of social support can lead to a poor psychosocial work environment, with increased stress levels, ill mental health, depression, and, in the worst cases, suicide.

I don't want to waste the committee's time by repeating what you have already heard from previous presenters, but it is important to note that while I was reading the proceedings, most of the things that I had jotted down as my initial things to talk about were crossed off the list because they had been brought up.

That emphasizes that we're a diverse country with businesses and geography being quite different, but the issues related to mental health are actually very similar. We have trade wars. We have trade deals. We have interest rates. We have a lot of guilt over trying to find a family-work balance. Most of us live in our workplace. The list of stressors is very long, and the next question is, “What are we going to do about it?”

Coming back to New Brunswick, we haven't done anything yet, but we're trying. We don't have a farm safety program or mental health services offered in an organized fashion. We're a very small province, so resources are always a challenge. We've decided to try to work together. Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have some access to counselling services offered to members of their federations of agriculture. Both of those provinces also have resources designated for farm safety programming.

We've agreed to a regional approach to farm safety, sharing knowledge and programming as we can. In New Brunswick, the alliance firmly believes that mental health initiatives would naturally fall under the umbrella of farm safety.

As previous speakers have already mentioned to the committee, having a federally coordinated approach to the development and delivery of mental health resources is the desired approach. This eliminates the duplication and wasting of precious resources as well as ensuring that smaller provinces and more remote locations have what is needed to support their producers and their families.

In order to achieve nationwide benefits, we need more people trained in mental health first aid, and we need reliable broadband access. Telehealth and video conferencing services could be a lifeline in remote locations, if the Internet service was actually high speed and reliable.

As I close, I would like to ask a question that actually results from our family's personal experience with mental health services in recent months. That is, why isn't primary care for mental health covered by medicare in the same way that physical health is covered? Timely interventions not only save the medicare system money in the long term, but they save lives.

I want to thank you for your investment of time on this matter, and I look forward to hearing what actions result from these discussions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Ashworth.

From Issues Ink, we have Mr. Shawn Brook and Ms. Devyn Brook.

You have up to six minutes.

[Shawn Brook, President, Issues Ink]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I want to start off by saying that I am not a mental health professional. I'm a communicator. Communication in the ag sector is what I'm passionate about and is close to my heart.

I grew up on a small farm in southern Manitoba. I got to see farmers have hard times, help each other and figure things out on their own, because that's what we were taught to do. We were taught to figure it out on our own, and if we couldn't figure it out on our own, go back and figure it out on our own. That was the culture that was instilled and that's the culture that made us strong.

It's also the culture that sets us in a difficult spot when mental illness comes into the conversation. I think that is the crux of why the communications component of what we're talking about with mental health and sharing is so critical to the program.

[Devyn Brook, Community Manager, Do More Agriculture Foundation, Issues Ink]

In the name of sharing stories, I've been a part of progressing the conversation around mental health for the past six years in different capacities.

Three years ago it became less about sharing other people's stories and more about actually sharing mine.

Three years ago almost to the date, my mother took her own life. Mental health didn't just become the mission of my job; it became the heart and soul of everything that I do.

Our stories are really the glue that holds us together. They allow us to have conversations across differences and to build relationships and trust. Our stories are what shine so that another struggling soul can know that they too are not alone.

My whole life I have been drawn to wherever support is most needed. Right now mental health in agriculture is where support is most needed. This is an industry that needs to be reminded that they too are not alone.

[Shawn Brook]

Rather than sharing stats with you, my goal was to share a story. I facilitated a panel discussion with two incredible young women, Kim Keller and Lesley Kelly, from the Do More Agriculture Foundation earlier this year at a farm tech meeting in Edmonton.

We had no idea how many producers would be interested in this conversation. We had no idea what the turnout was going to be, but the organizer wanted that conversation to happen.

We were put in a large conference room and we watched it fill up with faces, some that we knew and many that we didn't know. All were there to have this conversation.

I planned to start with three questions, each one was an ever-larger net to get the audience to see the impact of mental illness.

My first question was, who knows someone who has died from suicide? Virtually the entire room stood up. It still makes the hair on my neck stand up. I was floored, devastated and broken-hearted, but I was standing in front of a room of hundreds of people and we had to keep on going. Thankfully I was with two of the strongest, most impressive women I have ever met. Together we talked and shared about mental health in agriculture.

After the session was done and we had collected ourselves a bit, I was headed to my next session and saw an old-timer who was making a beeline towards me. I thought, oh boy, what's this gent going to say to me?

As he got to me he extended his hand and said, “Thank you. Thank you for your session and thank you for saving my life.” I bumbled off some sort of “pardon me?” type of comment, and he proceeded with what seemed like had been a well-thought-out explanation. He said, “After hearing that presentation, I'm going to find a professional to talk to. I'm having a hard time and didn't want to admit it out loud. Thank you.”

That ensured that I will be doing everything I can to help people understand what it means to suffer from mental illness, to support people who are suffering and to work as hard as I can to get the resources in place to make a difference.

[Devyn Brook]

Dr. Andria Jones-Bitton from the University of Guelph recently conducted a national survey on farmers' mental health. The survey ran from September 2015 to January 2016 and included farmers from all across Canada. She found that 35% of respondents meet the definition for depression, 45% of respondents meet the classification for having high stress, and 58% of respondents meet the definition for anxiety. The number of most concern out of all of them though was that 40% of farmers felt uneasy about seeking professional help for fear of what people might think. This points to the fact that this is not just an individual issue, but a cultural conversation that surrounds the industry right now that we get to be a part of.

The demand for something more gave rise to the Do More Agriculture Foundation, which is a Canada-wide, not-for-profit organization, championing the mental well-being of all Canadian producers. We are striving to create a culture in agriculture where all Canadian producers are empowered, supported and care for their mental well-being. The Do More Agriculture Foundation has three main focuses: creating awareness, building community and supporting research.

What does this look like in action? One of our most exciting initiatives ended up being a partnership with Farm Credit Canada called the community fund, which seeks to get mental health first aid into the hands of communities all across Canada. We weren't sure whether people were going to apply for the community fund, and we were floored by the fact that we had over 100 participants, or over 100 communities, apply for the community fund to bring mental health first aid to their communities from coast to coast, all through Canada.

We're super excited that things like this are happening and that we get to build capacity in our industry so we're not just depending on the crisis response team. We're depending on the individual communities to show up for their neighbours, their friends and their families in new and better ways that have them be cared for, but also have them fully equipped to manage and support somebody who is struggling with mental health.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you very much, Mr. and Ms. Brook.

Now we'll move to the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers. Mr. Huesca and Ms. Tew, you have six minutes.

[Eduardo Huesca, Community Outreach and Program Coodinator, Migrant Farm Worker Program, Hamilton, Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc.]

Good morning and thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this very important discussion.

My name is Eduardo Huesca and I work for the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers, or OHCOW, a network of clinics funded through the Ontario Ministry of Labour as a free-of-charge resource to Ontario workers and their employers.

Specifically, I'm the program coordinator of OHCOW's migrant farm worker program, which has been running since 2006. With me I have my colleague Michelle Tew, who is an occupational health nurse who has been working with our program since its beginnings.

Our program works directly with Ontario migrant farm workers to better understand their work experiences, to identify key occupational health issues that affect them, and to respond with initiatives, recommendations, language and culturally appropriate educational resources useful to these workers and their employers in support of occupational health and safety on their farms.

Through our work, we have identified mental health challenges affecting Ontario migrant farm workers. We are also seeing these findings reflected in a growing body of research coming from leading universities across Canada. More recently, clinical data has also begun to emerge from an increasing number of Ontario community health centres that are running specialized primary health care clinics for migrant workers in these regions. This data is identifying mental health distress among these workers as well.

In addition, similar to the findings presented on the lack or limitations of mental health supports currently available for farmers, through our work we have identified difficulties in finding mental health resources to support migrant farm workers in the local rural regions where these workers are residing.

Our intention today is by no means to try to eclipse or overshadow the focus on understanding and responding to the mental health of Canadian farmers. Through our work, we recognize and continue to learn about the extremely difficult challenges faced by farmers. We recognize their resilience and strength, and we want to thank the farmers who have previously contributed testimony to this committee, speaking about their lived experience on these matters.

We would also like to commend those leading important initiatives that have provided key supports to them. We have worked hard to gain the trust of Ontario farmers and we see our program as a support to them. Many of the farmers we work with, who invite us onto their farms to present our information sessions to the migrant farm workers they hire, have identified relief in connecting with us after experiencing great challenges finding effective occupational health and safety resources to support the particular needs of migrant farm workers and meet their legislative responsibilities towards them as their employers.

Today, our intention is to echo the testimony of Dr. Patrick Smith, the national chief executive officer of the Canadian Mental Health Association, and his reminder for us not to forget the experience of migrant farm workers in this review.

Again, in no way do we want to suggest that farmers and migrant farm workers are somehow in competition for our concern, but rather recognize the opportunity that is in front of us to seek a more comprehensive understanding of mental health challenges facing the agricultural industry and to challenge ourselves to develop responses for this sector that do not leave anyone behind.

The mental health of farmers and that of the migrant farm workers they hire are linked. We have had fruitful conversations with Dr. Andria Jones-Bitton and her team from the University of Guelph about how in the same way the mental health challenges of a farmer have direct effects on the farm family, they also have the potential to affect the workers the farmer manages. Similarly, a worker experiencing mental health distress may affect his or her employer.

Two years ago, we received a call from a community member in Carlisle, Ontario, between Hamilton and Guelph, who was supporting a very distraught farmer after one of the migrant farm workers who she was employing was hospitalized after suffering from alcohol poisoning connected to what had been an ongoing experience of depression. The worker's depression had reached this level of crisis after the sudden death of a close family member and the realization that he might not be able to return to his family in Mexico before the season finished without potentially losing his employment on the Ontario farm. After the fact, his co-workers noted they had seen symptoms of distress in this individual, but the farmer admitted that she had not noticed them. The farmer was woken up in the night, confronted with having to call for emergency services, tasked with communicating with the Mexican consulate, and required to figure out how to support the other workers who had witnessed the situation. The experience left this farmer quite affected.

A mental health support strategy for farmers that provides, for example, education on signs and symptoms of mental health distress not only has the potential to help farmers recognize and understand feelings they may be experiencing themselves or recognize behaviour in a husband, a wife, a partner, a friend or a neighbour, but also, if it includes migrant farm workers in this picture as being potentially at risk, could help farmers prevent potential mental health crises among the workers they hire.

We are in support of the recommendations that have been presented thus far to this committee by experts in this field. However, we suggest considering the migrant farm worker experience for inclusion within these recommendations to seek a more comprehensive understanding of this picture and to develop inclusive responses and solutions.

Whether it's having the call for funding for research in this area include research that focuses on farmer mental health as well as migrant farm worker mental health or possibly innovative research that looks at the intersections between the mental health challenges of both groups, this inclusion and possible exploration of commonalities and differences may result in a greater understanding across these groups, creating space for recommendations that may be mutually supportive.

In the scenario of the field worker meeting with the farmer on the farm and supporting their mental health, we can envision this field worker bringing a Spanish- or Thai-speaking translator with them, for example, who has familiarity with migrant farm workers, to then allow the field worker to also possibly visit with migrant workers who might be interested as well.

Whether the field worker visits the farmer and the migrant farm worker on the same day or on a separate occasion independently, whichever is decided to be the most effective, in such an example we would still hope that this dual focus of support would come from the same initiative to be able to leverage the working with both groups towards fostering greater empathy and potentially creating a space for farmer-farm worker relationships that are increasingly supportive of mental health.

In closing, the programs allowing for the hiring of migrant workers in Canada were themselves a federal solution to stresses experienced by Canadian farmers around labour shortages in the industry. Therefore, in a way, migrant farm workers have been part of this conversation and solution around the mental health of farmers. Considering this, we hope that we can move ahead with including these workers in our concerns around mental health in the agricultural industry and our search for increased understanding in our development of effective responses. This would result in a strategy that would seek to support a healthy agricultural sector for all those involved.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Huesca.

Now we will start our question round, for six minutes, with Monsieur Berthold.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In a few moments, I'll give the floor to my colleague Mr. Shipley, but before that, Mr. Chair, I would like to ask my colleagues again if they want us to invite the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food to appear as part of this study. As you know, the debate on this motion has been adjourned twice on this subject.

I would very much like us to resume this debate, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Is there any interest in debating this motion?

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

I would like to point out that I have met with the Minister, and he seemed very surprised not to have been invited to this meeting. I think he has a lot to say on this issue. Are the members of the committee interested in debating this motion?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Is there any interest in opening this debate?

Monsieur Poissant.

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

The minister will come and meet with us. He always comes to talk to us about the budget, and when he does, that is the time to ask him your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

The question is whether the members of the committee want to debate this motion.

A recorded vote was requested.

(Motion agreed to: yeas, 5; nays, 4)

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

We will resume questioning.

Monsieur Berthold.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you. I will give the floor to my colleague Mr. Shipley.

[Bev Shipley, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, CPC]

Thank you very much to all of you for taking the time to be part of this discussion.

Ms. Ashworth, in terms of the funding, you talked about the scenario of how it would be put together with the federal responsibility, to the province or the region, and then down to the local level.

From my perspective and I think from the perspective of many, one of the concerns in any of our recommendations is that we don't want it bureaucracy-laden. How do we fine-tune it so that those resources actually come down?

I may have missed it. Could you just help me out and talk about that pyramid, where it would come down to the lower level, where the action is?

We've had some great testimony in regard to Ms. Brook and her mom. There are lots of opportunities. How do we fine-tune that?

[Lisa Ashworth]

I don't have that answer.

[Bev Shipley]

We're looking for recommendations and thoughts, so—

[Lisa Ashworth]

That's the thing. It's an important question, because to say that any program starts at the federal level, when you know that you need the resources in very rural areas, there are a lot of layers in between to make that happen.

In the funding, FCC has stepped up, but in terms of the mental health first aid, the feed sales people and the machinery dealers, those people, need to be able to recognize the signs of distress on the farm, because they're the people who are there on a regular basis and may see a perfect example with the migrant workers. The person who interacts every day has so many things on their mind that they may miss those signs, so it's the people on the ground who interact who need training.

As I said, I don't have an easy answer for that, but it's making sure that we don't announce some gigantic programming and spend all the money promoting the program. We need the resources to be in the communities.

[Bev Shipley]

I want to talk about that just a little bit because I think one thing we've learned is that there are a number of impacts. I'm never really sure how we understand the difference. You can talk to some of us around this table who have walked through some of this. I really think that there's an opportunity, first, for individuals who are out there at the local levels and who have walked through it and need to be tapped into. It's nothing against the academic side of it, but they have to come alongside with those who have had some experience.

[Lisa Ashworth]

Having read through the previous proceedings of the people who've already presented, I think it's something that we recognize. When someone reaches out for help and they're told by a professional that they need to just step away and take a break, you've lost that connection. You need to have people who understand that your house is in the middle of your farmyard and you're not going anywhere. That's an important aspect to consider.

[Bev Shipley]

Devyn, I see you have your hand up. Would you just carry on, please?