Thank you.
You know, I was very fortunate to be named minister in this portfolio in January 2010. I had a meeting with my counterparts across the country within, I think, 11 days. We made this part of our agenda with the provinces and territories, because it's such a growing issue.
When I came from my previous employment, I fully understood the effect mental health can have on the workplace. When you're dealing with a company with fewer than 100 employees, having even one person who is ill, for whatever reason, or mentally ill specifically, can have an effect on the workplace. It affects everybody around the person and it affects productivity at work. What I found as an employer was that I really didn't have the tools to deal with this in the workplace.
As Canadians, we all want to help. We're good people. However, we need to know what to do, especially in certain circumstances when you really don't have any idea what you're supposed to do. That's why it became a very big part of my portfolio.
I'm very pleased with the progress we've made on it. We've had cross-country consultations. We've had national round tables. We've taken part in great campaigns by the private sector to try to eliminate stigma in the workplace, culminating in this psychological standard, but I would also emphasize that this is a work in progress.This continues. Having this voluntary standard will help us have tools for the worker and for the employer, but we still need to be chipping away at it.
In 2009 Don Drummond, the former chief economist at TD Bank, was the one who said that it's 35 million lost workdays each year. Disability costs are about 12% of a company's payroll. These are things we know. With good policies, with good tools in the workplace, we can help ameliorate this situation. We can help make sure that we're as productive as we possibly can be, and more importantly, that we are looking after our workers and our families.