Thank you, Madam Chair.
Denise, it's great to have you before the health committee. I had the pleasure of sitting on the health committee with Dave during my first term for a few years, and he was always hilarious. He always made meetings entertaining, regardless of the subject. It certainly is a tremendous loss to not have him.
I know you mentioned that he talked about stigma, and that seems to be one of the biggest obstacles when we discuss mental health.
I had the pleasure of attending a mental health meeting in Barrie last week because they're planning a golf tournament fundraiser in June, where they're going to have Shayne Corson, the former hockey player, talk about his depression as a means to.... Their slogan is “Let's Talk”; there needs to be more discussion around mental health. My question is this. What can we do to encourage those discussions? Obviously dialogue is going to help to bring down stigma.
I was thinking back to last summer. I know Mark Strahl mentioned Rick Rypien's death at our last meeting. I know there were also Derek Boogaard and Wade Belak who were front-page stories. If there's a silver lining in those tragedies, it's that it put more awareness than I can recollect on mental health. It was a front-page story for several days in the Toronto area with Wade Belak. It shocked people, because you saw people who were successful, talented, like Dave, who you'd have never thought in your wildest dreams would be suffering from mental health challenges.
What do you think we can do, as a federal government, to try to break down this stigma in particular, to make people more comfortable with having those conversations and asking those questions and seeking help?