Health Committee on March 23rd, 2010

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

“--and that the government should--”

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I'm going to ask you to stop. We're going to ask for unanimous consent to go ahead with this motion.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I'll just complete the motion, Madam Chair.

“--that the Canadian government should--“

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Do we have unanimous consent for this motion?

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

“--refrain from advancing the failed right-wing ideologies--“

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Is there consent?

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Now we're going to go on with....

Ms. Murray, do you have a question? I'll start your time over.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Dr. Duncan, you start, please.

[An hon. member]

We did not have unanimous consent?

[A voice]

No.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all.

I appreciate that Mr. Stoffer recognized everyone.

I'd like to particularly recognize Ms. Smith. You had a very difficult job to do today. It took tremendous courage, and I thank you for sharing about your husband. I will keep his picture--the gentle giant with the beautiful smile. So thank you.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I'm really concerned about this issue, and I'd like to ask how many mental health professionals are currently employed by the RCMP.

[Insp Rich Boughen]

There are approximately 14, one per division, more or less. But again, they're not psychologists who offer treatment. They are people who are more in the area of looking at trends for things like undercover operations, integrated child exploitation units, assessing those particular people in high-risk areas.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

So 14 psychologists for how many RCMP officers?

[Insp Rich Boughen]

There are roughly 19,000.

Our treatment needs go out to the community, so we look for both mental health issues and physical health issues to be done at the community level.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

That's a staggering statistic. How many of those 14 are clinical psychologists?

[Insp Rich Boughen]

I don't have that information before me.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

How many OSIs are we looking at per year?

[Insp Rich Boughen]

We don't have that information presently. As Staff Sergeant Brown said, I can tell you that we have a number of people who have applied for pensions through Veterans Affairs for an operational stress injury, but I don't have the number who are diagnosed with operational stress injuries.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Is that being tracked somewhere? What is the trend for that?

[Insp Rich Boughen]

Presently our systems aren't allowing us to do that.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Okay.

Can you take us through the process of someone coming forward and not feeling particularly well? What happens from that point?