Agriculture Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2018

[Bev Shipley]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you very much.

That was the last question, but if I may, I'll permit myself to make a short statement as a lifelong farmer myself.

I agree with what you said. First of all, you have to surround yourself with your wife, your family, your good friends. I think that's the key to keeping a sane mind. You might come in and say, “The plastic on the other greenhouse just blew away. We lost all of what we had.” You need somebody, as you said, waiting for you on the other side to say, “We still have our family. We still have our health.” I think that's very important.

The other thing I might say is that we've heard testimony that we should shut down this site or whatever. I welcome people into my greenhouse at any time. I'm glad they're there. I'm glad we don't have DDT today. I'm glad we don't have chlordane or diazinon. That killed my dad. I'm glad the CFIA is there to protect us.

I'm glad, too, that in terms of the maple leaf, when we sell our product outside the country, people know we are a safe place. I welcome it. I'll stand up any time when people come into my greenhouse and show them what I do for them—any time.

Thank you, Mr. Menzies and Mr. James-Davies, for being here today as part of our study. You've certainly contributed to it very well.

We shall break and come back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

For our second hour, I would like to welcome the Canadian Psychological Association and Dr. Karen Cohen, chief executive officer. Thank you very much, Ms. Cohen, for joining our study this morning.

Also, from Prince Edward Island, my part of the country, we have the Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture, with Mary Robinson, past president. We're glad to have you here, Mary. Thank you very much.

We'll start with opening statements of six minutes each.

Ms. Cohen, do you want to start?

[Dr. Karen R. Cohen, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Psychological Association]

Good morning.

The Canadian Psychological Association, the CPA, is the national association for the science, practice and education of psychology in Canada. Thank you very much for inviting us to speak to you today about the mental health of one of Canada's vitally important communities.

Farming is a stressful occupation that can lead to depression, psychological distress and suicide. High levels of mental health disorders and suicide are significant health issues for male farmers worldwide. In Canada specifically, men die by suicide more often than women and are typically more reluctant to seek help.

Data collected in 2015 at the University of Guelph as part of a farmers mental health survey revealed that farmers experience higher rates of stress, anxiety, emotional exhaustion and depression than the average population.

Research has also demonstrated that psychological treatments are among the most effective of treatments for mental disorders, notably depression and anxiety, yet access to psychological services is an issue across the country for farmers, ranchers and producers, and every Canadian. Psychological services provided outside of hospitals and schools are not publicly funded. Canadians either pay out of pocket or rely on the private health plans provided by their employers, plans that often do not provide enough coverage for an effective dose of psychological treatment. Those who cannot afford to pay for treatment end up on long wait-lists or depending on prescription medications, which at present are also not publicly funded, or simply do not get help at all.

Being self-employed, farmers, ranchers and producers may not have private extended health insurance. Publicly funded mental health services in rural areas are often in short supply and wait-lists are long. Even for those who have private insurance or who can pay for care, the per capita ratios of all health providers are lower in rural than in urban areas.

Travelling to urban areas to get specialized mental health care means absences from work that farming may not permit. It means leaving families and support networks and losing revenue. For some farmers, ranchers and producers, seeking mental health services may not seem worth the cost of recovery.

The recruitment and retention of psychologists to work in rural and remote communities is part of the problem. It's estimated that the psychologist-to-population ratio in rural areas in 2012 was approximately 1:28,500, as compared to an average of 1:3,848 in urban areas.

Mental health service providers who do practice in rural communities often have large caseloads. The federal government can take immediate steps to help recruit mental health workers to work in rural and remote communities to ease caseloads and wait times.

In 2013, the federal government launched the CanLearn program that forgives a portion of Canada student loans for new family physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners who agree to work in underserved rural and remote communities. CPA has long asked to expand the program to include psychologists to improve the recruitment and retention of mental health care providers in these underserved communities.

There are other factors related to the values and experiences of farmers that may prevent them from seeking and receiving care. These include the stigma attached to mental illness as well as a lack of understanding of farming and its realities on the part of health care providers.

E-mental health services that include psychological treatment may help overcome some of the barriers to seeking care. According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, e-mental health care shortens wait times, reaches across time zones, improves accessibility in rural and remote areas and is cost-effective. E-mental health treatments have also been shown to be just as effective as face-to-face treatment for certain illnesses and work for several kinds of mental disorders, including depression, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress and eating disorders.

Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy, offered through the online therapy unit at the University of Regina, screened 1,046 patients for Internet therapy last year. Of these, 8.6% identified as living on a farm and 23.2% lived in small rural areas.

It is the CPA's view that all care, whether delivered in person or virtually, should be delivered by or under the supervision of regulated and specialized mental health care providers and should be monitored for, and be guided by, their treatment outcomes.

In closing, the CPA would like to make the following recommendations: First, the government should fund research and programs delivering evidence-based e-mental health services. More can be done to promote these programs with farmers, ranchers and producers and to tailor programs and train providers to work with these communities.

Second, while we applaud the federal government's 2017 investment of $5 billion over 10 years in mental health, mental health spending should be increased from 7.2% of total public health spending to a minimum of 9%. The U.K. spends on average 13% of their total health care budget on mental health.

Third, the CPA has been part of a steering committee of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, working to advance e-mental health by calling for investment in proven innovations, addressing knowledge gaps and identifying and sharing best practices. We hope that the government continues to invest in the commission and this important work.

Fourth, we ask that the government expand the CanLearn loan forgiveness program to include psychologists working in underserved or rural communities. Doing so will improve the recruitment and retention of mental health service providers in these communities where mental health need is great and underserved.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Cohen.

We'll go now to Ms. Robinson for six minutes.

[Mary Robinson, Past President, Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture]

Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today.

I am Mary Robinson, past president of the Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture, P.E.I.'s largest general farm organization. Our federation's mandate is to help improve the sustainability of island farmers and farm families.

Today I will focus on the services we are delivering in P.E.I., speak of some specific concerns and give you my two cents' worth on what I feel our Government of Canada could and should do to better protect and fortify Canada's farmers, producers and ranchers.

First off, what are we doing in P.E.I.? In the 1990s and early 2000s, there were a couple of major stressors for agriculture in P.E.I. We had a potato virus that shut us out of fresh markets in the States, and BSE hit our beef producers hard. We saw a significant jump in the number of farmers and their family members seeking counselling services. National research highlighted farmers and their families being underserved with regard to mental health services.

A local counselling firm put these two points together and approached the provincial government in hopes of helping the P.E.I. farm community. Our Department of Agriculture approached our federation to discuss how we could partner to deliver a valuable program to P.E.I. farmers.

In 2004 our farmer assistance program, FAP, was launched. FAP offers confidential professional counselling services to P.E.I. farmers and their family members. Designed to help address issues that impact mental health and well-being, the program offers confidential sessions with a professional counsellor. On the front lines delivering the program we have two registered social workers and one registered psychologist.

The numbers from April 1 to September 30 of this year illustrate how important the program is. In those six months, 47 people used the counselling services and we delivered over 95 sessions. Topics addressed included marital issues, depression, anxiety, grief, life stages, PTSD, addictions, child management, and, suicide prevention.

FAP has been cost-shared between the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture and the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture, and until recently had been allocated just under $13,000 per year. Uptake continues to grow. In some ways, this is a good problem, but it does result in continued and increasing budget overruns. In 2017 it became clear the program needed at least 50% more funding. We discovered that to avoid disruption of counselling services, the service providers had quietly been absorbing program losses.

For the last two years, the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture has increased its contribution. There were discussions with our Department of Health in hopes they would commit to topping up the program when necessary, but so far nothing has come of this.

After coverage in local media, Farm Credit Canada's Charlottetown office contacted our federation to express their interest in directly contributing this year. Since 2004 over 800 farm clients have accessed mental health services through FAP, with more than 2,000 sessions delivered in total. We continue to have strong feedback on the value found in these services.

Now for some specific concerns.

I know that this committee has been given several examples of producers' mental health issues. I would like to bring you one from P.E.I. Over the past four years, we have watched one farm family in particular be pushed beyond reason.

In August 2014 there was what we now call “a significant weather event”. These are really common now. They're common and they're more destructive. This one dumped three inches of rain in less than one hour. You can imagine that volume of water falling on a field. It resulted in water that was laden with silt and crop inputs—yes, pesticides, fertilizers, seed, what have you—running off the fields, busting through our established buffer zones—because farmers establish buffer zones—and ending up in ditches and streams.

Days later, 1,155 dead fish were found over a 3.5-kilometre span in the river. As a result of the fish mortalities, this farm family has been in and out of court for the past four years facing charges, acquittals, Crown appeals and now sentencing. Ironically, this farm was celebrated in 2012 for its environmental stewardship.

This family is a valued community member. They are employers, notable contributors to our local economy, and they work hard hand in hand with the local watershed group. Recently they took on more debt, reinvesting in their operation to expand it and to access more markets, so they've taken on more financial stresses. Most recently, one of their daughters has been diagnosed with cancer, and her baby's almost a year old. At the last court date, they were told that the Crown, pursuing DFO charges, is seeking a minimum fine of $175,000. I don't know about their farm, but I don't know if our farm could sustain a $175,000 fine and continue to operate. I can't imagine being faced with these stresses.

As in many regions in Canada, P.E.I. producers face many uncontrollable risks: weather, disease, pests, tight margins, trade vulnerability, buyer amalgamation, public trust issues, labour shortages, BRM shortcomings, and the list, unfortunately, goes on.

What can government do?

Now I get to the emotional part of my presentation. I was working on my Christmas card list earlier this week, and I had to remove two names, two producers I know who committed suicide. They died by suicide this year alone. If we want to be effective in quelling the losses and negative impacts resulting from mental health struggles, we must find the resources to implement a pan-Canadian approach to agricultural mental health research and to strongly support mental health initiatives across the Canadian agricultural community.

As a primary producer, I encourage this committee to take into consideration the potential negative impacts from different campaigns, for lack of a better word, such as front-of-pack labelling and access to temporary foreign workers. We know that producers are being held up, because they're being randomly audited. There is increased regulation. I have no trouble with common sense regulation, but it seems unending, and there is a lack of leadership, in particular from Health Canada and PMRA, to help instill a sense of confidence that our food is safe, that our farmers are doing good work, that we should be proud and we should be damn well happy.

I found Dr. Andria Jones-Bitton's statement summed it up well: “We can't have a sustainable food system in Canada if we don't have sustainable farmers.” This historically stoic profession, “six feet tall and bulletproof”, as I heard earlier, is highly vulnerable right now and needs help right now. Canada cannot expect its agriculture sector to grow and expand if it does not invest in farmers' foundational well-being.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Ms. Robinson, for your testimony.

Mr. Berthold, you have the floor.

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

Mr. Chair, unfortunately, we're currently hearing the bell indicating that a vote will be held in 30 minutes.

I want my colleagues to agree to allow each of us to ask the witnesses a question before leaving, without using all our speaking time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

I need unanimous consent to give a question to each party.

[Some hon. members]

Okay.

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

I was thinking more along the lines of one question per person.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Okay. I'll stop you after two minutes.

Mr. Berthold, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Robinson, I just wanted to thank you for your presentation. It was important for us to hear this story. What this family has been through is unbelievable.

I also want to thank you for addressing all the other factors that are under the government's responsibility and that add to the farmers' stress. You specifically mentioned front-of-package labelling and foreign workers. We must open our eyes and expand our horizons. The decisions that concern farmers shouldn't be made by only one sector. The decisions should involve more people who are familiar with the potential impact on farmers. Thank you.

Ms. Cohen, I'm interested in one issue in particular. People who are involved in agriculture are passionate and dedicated to their work. They know the challenges ahead. That said, we must anticipate rather than simply react. Therefore, when does agriculture become an issue or risk for them?

[Dr. Karen R. Cohen]

I think one of the challenges when it comes to mental health is that we talk about it as if it's a solitary phenomenon and a solitary issue, and it isn't, of course. There are any number of issues that people face. They have different predispositions to different kinds of problems.

I think the kinds of investments that were announced this week around mental health first aid and prevention promotion are critical, but they won't necessarily address or prevent someone from developing depression. There are many, many factors. However, I think that if care, resources and support are given to people early.... The earlier you can identify something and get someone the assistance that they need, the better the outcome.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Monsieur Berthold.

Monsieur Breton is next.

[Pierre Breton, Liberal, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Robinson, thank you for your courage during your presentation. I'm sorry that we can't take more time to ask you questions, as a result of the vote this morning in the House.

You mentioned an assistance program for Prince Edward Island farmers. I gather that it was established in 2004, and I find it interesting. Can you tell us a little more about it?

[Mary Robinson]

It's a joint-funded program, partly by our provincial Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and partly by our P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture. We had FCC come to the table this year, after there was extensive media coverage, to offer some financial support as well.

We typically have a $13,000 budget, but we discovered in 2017 that we had a 50% overrun. Since both 2017 and 2018, our provincial government has stepped up, as have we, and with the help of FCC, we're hopefully meeting that budget. However, to think what we could do with additional money there is pretty powerful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Breton

Mr. MacGregor is next.

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

Thank you both for appearing today.

Ms. Robinson, I know that took a lot to talk about, so I just want you to know that we all appreciate that. It's important to get it on the record.

You talked about the seasonal agricultural worker program, and we've heard from many producers about the shortage of labour, how long application periods are, and the fact that producers don't know what's going on when they're audited.

A lot of producers have suggested maybe having trusted employers. Employers who have decades-long relationships with their employees should not have to go through the same process if they have consistently demonstrated that they have a good work environment.

In the short time that we have, are there any other recommendations that you just want to put on the record to at least put that stress maybe at ease for many producers?

[Mary Robinson]

I think a lot of what we could do is incredibly low-lying fruit. We could change the terms “seasonal agricultural worker” and “temporary foreign worker”. These have negative connotations to people who don't understand that the program has been in place for five decades and is incredibly valuable on both sides of the equation.

The workers who come to Canada are typically very happy to have the opportunity to come here and to make the money that they make. It's like what happens in eastern Canada: We see our guys go west to Fort McMurray and make big money, and they're isolated from their families and it's very similar. However, the public lens is very unfavourable.

I encourage government to have a look at everything it does to contribute to or erode public trust. I think that for producers, typically it's like having a billion feathers stacked on you. It's going to kill you. Every little thing that we do to make people look sideways at farmers ends up having a massive impact on mental health.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you very much, Ms. Robinson and Dr. Cohen, for being here.

As we said, we would love to have had a bit longer time, but we certainly appreciate your testimony and will include that in our study.

Thank you again.

The meeting is adjourned.