Health Committee on Oct. 8th, 2024

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

How many times did they keep her?

[Sarah MacDonald]

Twice.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

That's your time. Thank you.

Mrs. Goodridge has the floor for five minutes.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll follow up on the questions from Dr. Powlowski.

They only kept her twice in the 20-plus times you took her to the hospital for suicide attempts. Is that correct?

[Sarah MacDonald]

Yes.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

When you were dealing with this kind of situation, I assume there were many times when you didn't have the opportunity or you chose not to take her to the hospital.

How often were you dealing with this? Do you feel like enough was being done to help you?

[Sarah MacDonald]

This was going on daily and her attempts were almost weekly at the end, if not every other week. They were pretty bad. We didn't go to the hospital quite often because we knew we would just be sent home and it was a waste of time.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

I'm so sorry.

I'm going to switch gears a bit.

Mr. Kulmala, your Tailgate Toolkit includes resources for people to be able to access what you call safe supply.

Are workers permitted to use safe supply while on the work site?

[Rory Kulmala]

No, and I think there's an underlying requirement. We have zero tolerance for impairment on a job site. We haven't seen, and I can say I haven't had a report of, somebody actually dying on a job site who was actively using.

I'm sure, from a medical point of view, the levels of impairment are broad, but we don't accept that on a job site.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

You do not allow employees to use drugs on the work site in your safety-sensitive employment location. You think this safe supply is good just for other people to use.

I'm confused.

[Rory Kulmala]

No, what we're trying to do is provide the resources that are available. We're advocating for wellness. Where there is safe supply, we're telling people that when they get home, if they're going to use it, there's a way to stay alive.

As I have said before, we're just trying to throw them a life ring. We're not teaching them how to swim. That's not our job. Our job is to provide awareness.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

What funding do you receive from the federal government or the provincial government in British Columbia?

[Rory Kulmala]

We receive funding through the provincial government from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions to provide the Tailgate Toolkit throughout the province.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

If an employee were to get into an incident of some sort and test positive—they have hydromorphone in their system—what's the next step?

[Rory Kulmala]

The next step would typically be through their health and safety processes with the particular contractor. Again, it's not about trying to give them an opportunity at the job site to get high.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Okay.

Is the next step often referring them to treatment?

[Rory Kulmala]

It could be. The first thing is to suspend them. If they're clearly impaired on the job site, they get suspended. There will then be a path of investigation to suggest treatment or other employment remedies.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Okay, so effectively, there is zero tolerance for drug use on site, but you give people the tools to use drugs if they choose to, and you tell them they're not allowed to use drugs at the site. I feel like this is a bit of a revolving door of interestingness.

How do you support employees who are coming back and choose to take treatment?

[Rory Kulmala]

We're an industry association. We're just advocating. We basically provide a workbook of resources of where they can go. This is determined at the employer level. How they can treat them, what they do and how they support their workers is up to them, not us as an association.

We are basically taking the tools that are available and out there, and putting them into some type of resource package that says, “Here's what there is.” Whether we like it or not—

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Okay.

[Rory Kulmala]

—there is safe supply; we're not here to debate that. We're here to say, “Here's what it is; here's how you can get help.”

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

Do you think there should be more resources available for treatment?

[Rory Kulmala]

Clearly. I think when we look at the remedies of pain management and mental health, those are all stemming to really drive.... Again, that's a personal issue and nothing to do with the construction sector, but yes, there is lots of room for improvement. As we've heard from Mr. Charles and Ms. MacDonald, from a very young age, and certainly with the doctors on the panel, there is opportunity to make this better.

[Laila Goodridge, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Cold Lake, AB]

You're promoting drug use in your Tailgate Toolkit. Do you also promote treatment for addictions?

[Rory Kulmala]

We're not promoting treatment, Madam; we're promoting awareness. We're promoting information to tell people that, if they do need help, this is where they can get it.