Thank you for that question.
As I've stated many times, as Minister of Health and someone from the north, I really appreciate the importance...on suicide prevention in the House. I was very pleased that members of the House also rose above partisanship to discuss this very important matter.
I will be meeting with the ministers of health later this week, on Friday, to discuss the many issues around health, including suicide prevention. I want to find out about the programs they currently have in place and to see if there's a better way to coordinate programs across the country on suicide prevention.
It's also very important to note that I will have the discussions with the provinces and the territories while keeping in mind and respecting the fact that the provinces and the territories are ultimately responsible for the delivery of health care. Our role here would be to work with the jurisdictions as well as collect any information that we have.
In terms of our initiatives in Budget 2010, we made significant investments to address the national aboriginal youth suicide prevention strategy and to support community-based projects. The strategy was developed in partnership with the first nations and Inuit, and it was based on statistics and review across the country in that area.
The other thing I will say is that our government has also established, for the first time in Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada. That commission is to develop a strategy to prevent and help reduce the number of suicides in our country. The commission will be releasing their recommendations earlier in the year.
For the information of the committee, I've also invited the Mental Health Commission to speak to the provincial health ministers this Friday to give them an update in terms of what will be going forward in the area of mental health that would also support jurisdictions in the area of suicide prevention.
Thank you.