Health Committee on June 15th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I think it was Mr. Lake who moved it.

Mr. Lake, do you have the text of the motion that you could read into the record?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Interestingly, I wrote it down after I said it, because I was saying it on the fly here. I think it's important.

I don't know if the clerk or one of the analysts wants to read it back. I've written down what I think I said. Of course, the record will say what I actually said.

I believe that what I said was that the minister table with the committee all documentation that confirms that it has met its commitment—let me just pull this up—to fund the Canada mental health transfer, as clearly outlined on page 75 of its 2021 election platform.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Okay. That's consistent with my recollection of what you said, Mr. Lake.

Colleagues, Mr. Johns is next on the speaking order, but the minister committed to be with us until 6:30, and it is now 6:30, so I'm going to take this opportunity, as we continue to debate—

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, if the minister were to commit to this, it would make our vote really easy.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you.

Minister, thank you so much for being with us. We had a lengthy delay, and I know that you had to move other things around. You responded very promptly to our request that you appear. We are grateful for that.

I don't want to further impose upon the time you've set aside for us. It looks like there's going to be some further debate on the motion. If you have anything you want to say before you go, please say it, and then we're going to move on with the motion.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

I just wanted to reiterate what Minister Duclos said last week in terms of the significant increase in the Canada health transfer, as well as the $600 million a year in the bilateral agreements from 2018.

We can very easily document what has gone to provinces and territories and also what is in the substance use addiction programs and the mental health innovation. I'm happy to give you what we have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Minister.

Mr. Johns, please.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I'm worried about time, too. We have half an hour with the senior staff and questions, so I move that we vote on this right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Brière, please.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Sherbrooke, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Before we vote, I would like to repeat that we have reiterated many times that mental health is part of health.

We have made historic investments. Since 2015, $5 billion has been provided to provinces and territories to increase access to mental health care. This includes $598 million for the distinctions-based mental health and wellness strategy for indigenous peoples, $140 million to support veterans, $45 million for national mental health standards, as the minister pointed out earlier, and $270 million for the Canada Wellness Together portal.

I think this demonstrates our commitment to action on this issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Brière.

Are there any other interventions?

Seeing none, we're ready for the question.

We're clear that this is, as was indicated a couple of times, a request from the committee for the tabling of documents.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I'd like a recorded vote, please, Mr. Chair.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

I'm happy to provide a written response, so we'll be able to let you know what there is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

That should make the vote really easy. Thank you, Minister.

Go ahead with the recorded vote.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Now we're going to continue until seven o'clock with questions for the officials. The next person to pose questions is Ms. Sidhu, please, for five minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to all the officials for being here with us.

It's not common for all communities to have an open conversation about mental health. I know this government is working to break down the stigmas. Recently there were investments for mental health happening for the distress centres, including Brampton South Asian Canadians Health & Social Services, which provides culturally appropriate services. It's much needed to address this mental health issue.

How is this government working to support communities with culturally sensitive mental health services, especially when it comes to youth services?

[Heather Jeffrey, Associate Deputy Minister, Department of Health]

Indeed, social determinants are key to the response. Many of our programs and our experience during COVID-19 show that communities from different backgrounds experienced the pandemic and the mental health impacts very differently. For that reason, we've emphasized the importance of disaggregated data and consultations with communities to make sure that their needs are reflected and data is shared. We've established programming that is available in a wide variety of languages. For example, Wellness Together Canada provides mental health services in over 200 languages, including 24 indigenous languages.

Our Public Health Agency colleagues have an extensive program of outreach and programming in communities, in their languages and responding to their needs.

I would like to pass this to Candice St-Aubin, who is responsible for that programming, just to comment on the specifics.

[Candice St-Aubin, Vice-President, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada]

Yes, we have directed interventions for mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness, as well as trauma and PTSD and those populations that have been most impacted during COVID-19. That would be $100 million over three years within the mental health promotion space, as well as $50 million dedicated to PTSD and trauma-informed impacts. These are directly in the community and are being developed and delivered by community members in the language and cultural choice that best impact and support their community members.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

How important has virtual care been in assisting Canadians in terms of mental health, with virtual platforms such as Wellness Together Canada and PocketWell?

[Heather Jeffrey]

Especially in light of the COVID pandemic, virtual health care services have become even more important, especially when people haven't been able to receive them in person. Wellness Together Canada was one of the government's responses to that need. Through an investment of $270 million, Wellness Together Canada was able to provide 6.9 million individual sessions to over 2.4 million individuals by phone and by text. We've recently launched PocketWell, which is the mobile application allowing Canadians to access services whenever they need them from wherever they need them. The evaluations of that program have been very positive. Over 88% of those who used the services said that they felt better, and 41% said that they would not have been able to access services any other way. Virtual care also has many other uses in the health care space, and we have diverse programming.

I will just ask Jocelyne Voisin to comment a bit on the broader virtual care space.

[Jocelyne Voisin, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Branch, Department of Health]

Throughout the pandemic, the provinces and territories have really moved to implement virtual care, recognizing that Canadians still need access to care services. The federal government supported them in that space with a $240-million investment. There are bilateral agreements with each of the provinces and territories to help them advance virtual care and implement it in their jurisdictions. Mental health, of course, is one of the main areas that are benefiting from virtual care access.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

We know, when addressing mental health, that having access to community services is essential. Recently, $8.6 million was announced for six projects across Ontario to promote mental health and well-being in our communities. Can you expand on how these projects will help to improve mental health outcomes for residents?

[Heather Jeffrey]

One of the things we've discovered is that it's really important that services respond to the most local needs, and that different communities are facing different challenges and services need to be provided in an accessible way. We saw this throughout the COVID response, when Canadians responded most directly to services being offered by close-to-home organizations within their communities. Stigma is a serious concern, and we want to make sure that people feel as comfortable as possible in reaching out. That means local care from organizations and community members whom they recognize and feel comfortable dealing with.

We have a wide variety of programs, including the mental health innovation fund from the Public Health Agency and the substance use and addictions program. These all fund local-level community response across the full tool kit of services that we need to respond to mental health and addictions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Jeffrey, and thank you, Ms. Sidhu.

The next round of questions is going to come from Mr. Johns, because the Conservatives and the NDP have traded turns.

Mr. Johns, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to my colleagues as well.

I have a question on mental health. What steps is the government taking to scale alternative approaches to police response involving mental health and substance use issues, such as by including peer support workers, mental health nurses, and other trained mental health care professionals?

[Heather Jeffrey]

As we were saying, it really takes a very broad tool kit to respond to all the different dimensions of mental health needs. It requires a full suite of wraparound services, including working with law enforcement and others who are dealing with people who have multiple needs across the spectrum.

We've been holding multiple consultations across the country with different groups, stakeholders and communities that are involved in dealing with treatment and substance-use issues. We are working on consultations to overhaul the Canadian drug and substances strategy and to refresh a mental health strategy that is going to allow that full suite of integrated services.

Maybe I'll pass the floor to Eric Bélair.