Health Committee on Dec. 17th, 2024

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

What are you doing to advocate to the Minister of Public Safety—who now has multiple hats—when it comes to banning these precursors?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Just to be clear.... When it comes to precursors, they're essential. The precursors that are essential for making fentanyl are already restricted and prohibited. Again, the member is misleading—

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

We're an absolute net exporter of fentanyl. We are having massive drug busts every single day.

My next question is this: Do you support the Prime Minister or Chrystia Freeland?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I don't believe that question is relevant to my portfolio today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I agree.

Move on, please.

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

I think it's very relevant.

Do you support the Prime Minister?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

I think we should stick to the intended discussion of the meeting. If Mrs. Goodridge could stick to the relevant message....

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I'm inclined to agree.

Unless you can tie the question to the estimates, it really is out of line. You have about 16 seconds left, Mrs. Goodridge.

Go ahead.

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

We're hearing that there's going to be a cabinet shuffle later this week. Are you still going to be the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

I'm sorry. Let's move on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

It's the same point, I take it?

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Do you wish to answer that, Minister?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Sure.

I don't deal in hypotheticals, as the member well knows. I've been asked to appear as the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions today, and that's my intention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mrs. Goodridge.

Thank you, Minister.

Next we go over to the Liberals.

Ms. Brière, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We know youth today are facing many challenges and have unique mental health needs. Last month, you announced the launch of the youth mental health fund call for proposals.

Can you tell us more about how this fund of $500 million will help support community organizations and build capacity to better serve youth clients, especially those from underserved groups?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

I thank my colleague for her question.

In budget 2024, this government made a once-in-a-generation investment in our young people across the country, because we know that, when our young people thrive, Canada succeeds. The youth mental health fund is intended to invest in our young people and in the services and community organizations they trust in their communities to help them build resilience and to provide them with prevention tools and a tool kit for good mental health as young Canadians and as they move forward in life.

The fund will be supporting community mental health organizations from coast to coast to coast. Our consultations included youth across the country from indigenous communities, urban communities and marginalized and racialized communities, as well as newcomer Canadians, to ensure that we had the full breadth of understanding of what challenges our young people are facing today.

As minister—and, as I often say, as a mom—this is a critical point of service we're investing in for our young people, because we know that they need those supports, and we want to be there for them.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you.

It has been one year since the launch of the 988 suicide helpline. Can you speak to initiatives undertaken by PHAC and CAMH to further enhance the network?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Thank you.

We just had the 988 anniversary, and some of the successes from our first year of this national project in compassion and caring and showing up for Canadians meant that we were there for 300,000 calls and texts this year, which meant a lot to Canadians across this country. We have 39 organizations that are on the front lines of this work, with incredible volunteers who are committed to being there for someone in their moment of crisis.

It's a place of pride for us as Canadians that this compassion network is meeting people where they are in those critical moments. Three hundred thousand calls and texts—29,000 calls and texts per month, or nearly 1,000 a day—means we are meeting people in their most challenging moments, and that's something we can all be proud of.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you again.

The loss of a loved one to suicide leaves ripple effects on entire communities and causes lifelong trauma within families. Can you speak to the progress being made on the national suicide prevention action plan?

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I want to thank MP Brière for her work on this file as well.

We announced the framework for the national suicide prevention action plan in late May and June of this year. This is an “all hands on deck”, “all province and territory” Canadian initiative. All provinces and territories have agreed to be part of this framework for understanding how we meet Canadians in terms of suicide prevention.

We know we need to do more. The numbers are challenging, particularly in the northern part of the country and among indigenous youth. That being said, we have taken an all-of-Canada approach to this by learning from one another across the country about what services work, what more needs to be done and how we can truly support Canadians. This is really an example of collaborative work across jurisdictions at its best.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Chair, I think I'll leave it there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Brière.

Mr. Thériault, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's December. This time last year, the committee began its study on the toxic drug crisis. So we've been working on it for a year now. We've visited major cities across Canada.

Minister, I want to ask you how the addition of your department has helped resolve the crisis.

[Ya'ara Saks, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

I want to acknowledge the work of this committee in its continued study on the opioid crisis and express my disappointment that Conservative members chose not to participate in the very important on-the-ground tours that were done to understand evidence-based models across the country. I will acknowledge that other colleagues on this committee did take the time to understand what is needed to save lives, to save Canadians and loved ones.

Our department has done a number of measures, when it comes to addressing the illicit toxic drug supply, working with jurisdictions.

To be clear, harm reduction, treatment and aftercare are squarely placed within the realm of the health care administration of provinces and territories. Our role as a federal government is to work with jurisdictions to find the tools that work and that make sense for communities. That's why we invested $200 billion in bilateral agreements with jurisdictions. Mental health and substance use is a key principle priority to enable jurisdictions to determine what tools make the most sense in their jurisdictions to save lives and help those who struggle with substance use and addictions to get the health care they need.

That being said, we have the opportunity to work with communities to augment and support those services. Through the SUAP this past year of nearly $144 million, we invested in supporting community organizations across the country for prevention, harm reduction, training and education in communities. We also launched last month the emergency treatment fund, which will add additional layers of support in communities for emergency crises.