Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mental health and mental illness have always been the poor relations of the health care system. We must be careful not to make the mistake of failing to learn from this pandemic. Once people have been vaccinated, once we get our heads out of the barrel and the pandemic is behind us, we shouldn't think that we don't need to invest more in mental illness prevention and mental health promotion. This is a great opportunity to re-prioritize and invest where we can save money in the long term, as Ms. Waddell said.
It was a general comment.
In addition, experts who appeared before us in committee spoke to us about the increased challenges to the mental health of staff in the health care field. We know that 82% of the health care workforce in Canada is female. During the first wave of COVID-19, the situation of health care employees really deteriorated because of the longer working hours and stressors associated with the pandemic.
Mr. Trainor, I'd like to hear your opinion on this. Do you feel the health care staff are receiving adequate support?
How could we make this support better? How can we make these people less stressed and less affected by the pandemic?