Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We're hearing a lot of anecdotal evidence about the second pandemic and the increased risk that some people may have in terms of depression, psychological distress, substance abuse and PTSD. I very much appreciate my colleague Mr. Davies's passion towards the urgency of the situation.
One of my concerns is that we are lacking focus on this. If we have too many priorities, we have no priorities. There are a considerable number of requests, and frankly, if we're talking about transparency, I think transparency is the obligation to give others the opportunity to read what is being proposed and an adequate amount of time to consider what's being proposed. I don't think that's the case with this motion. I have not had an opportunity to go through it in detail.
I think, in the interests of transparency and openness, that we should all be given an opportunity to review it and find out what the implications are. With some of the documents that were being produced or that were requested to be produced, we had a considerable amount of discussion on that in committee previously. As I said earlier, we have had 34 meetings, 171 witnesses and 51 briefs, and we've yet to hear what that has produced in things we should be considering on a go-forward basis. We've invested a lot of time already and we haven't heard the recommendations or the analysis as we go forward.
The study I have proposed would provide us with a better understanding of the current situation relative to mental health and its impact on mental health. It would enable and provide us with a more informed strategy on mental health and on well-being as we go forward.
We've spent a considerable amount of money in dealing with the early stages of mental health, and I think it's important for us to understand how effective those items are. With this study we would understand the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and well-being of Canadians.
In this motion I see nowhere where it says that we would want to take a look at high-risk groups like indigenous people, racialized Canadians and vulnerable populations, and I think it's important that we take a look at the socio-economic implications that would require us to develop different programs. A general, all-encompassing motion such as what we have before us now takes away the opportunity for us to focus on areas that we need to put an early focus on.
If I recall what we heard from one of the witnesses, it was that if we had focused on what was in the curve as opposed to focusing on the curve itself, we might have had some better results. There is no mention of any of that in this motion.
My concern is that as we go forward with such a broad mandate, we're losing the ability to focus on priority areas, and I think we need to give close consideration to that. When I say “close consideration”, please give us a week to read the document, to consider all the aspects, to look at the implications.
In terms of the document I proposed, I had fully anticipated that if it needed to be referred, I was quite prepared to be transparent in that respect and to permit others an opportunity to give full consideration to that document. That's not happening here, and it's a bit of a disappointment that the proposal with respect to what I consider to be the second pandemic, for which there is no vaccine, was so summarily dismissed, and now it's buried deep between two pages of small-font documents. I think that's totally unfair to people who are suffering at a very critical time.
I would ask that we be given the opportunity to review this in more detail. I know we can go chapter and verse in rules and regulations, and that's fine, and I think they're in place for a reason. Let's respect everyone's desire to make a thorough decision, to do a thorough analysis and to come forward with a consensus, which I think can happen with more thorough discussion and debate and an opportunity to review it.
Again, if we have too many priorities, we have no priorities, and this is too much of a shotgun approach for me to be happy with it. I am willing to give it further consideration if people are willing to give me the opportunity to review it in more detail.
I know that a number of things are reflected in this document that we had quite a robust discussion on, and we came to consensus. Why is it that we're rushing into this without providing the transparency of full due consideration?
Thank you, Mr. Chair.