Evidence of meeting #35 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Thank you, Chair.
As a federal government, what can we do to help with enhanced, effective employment support programs for those with mental illness?
Mr. Mantler, go ahead.
10:35 a.m.
Vice President, Programs and Priorities, Mental Health Commission of Canada
That's a great question.
The federal government itself is a huge employer, and adopting the national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace for the federal public service is an amazing step forward.
Public policy that supports individuals getting back into the workplace or removes the financial disincentives for getting back into the workplace and that can influence programs across the country as well would be helpful.
10:35 a.m.
Policy Development Officer, Social Development, Finance and Administration, City of Toronto
I'd like to share the experience of the City of Toronto in implementing a social procurement policy. The federal government, like the City of Toronto, is a huge purchaser of goods and services, and we can use that power for social benefits.
What we have done—
10:35 a.m.
Policy Development Officer, Social Development, Finance and Administration, City of Toronto
We have developed a social procurement policy, which we are also encouraging other anchor institutions in Toronto to adopt, such as universities, colleges, the TTC, and Metrolinx. Together we have a collective buy of about $30 billion a year.
If we reorganize the way we select bidders when we purchase goods and services to ensure that we are not only getting maximum economic value from our public dollars but also generating environmental value, or in this case social value, then we can make the dollars that we have to spend go much further, and we can increase employment opportunities for equity-seeking groups.
We have developed a policy that requires one out of every three bids to represent a diverse supplier. If the federal government thought it was very important to increase the employment of people affected by mental illness, you could build that into your procurement policies for the federal government.
10:40 a.m.
Director, Strategic Initiatives, Working for Change
Can I add quickly to that?
10:40 a.m.
Director, Strategic Initiatives, Working for Change
As the federal government, you have a real opportunity around infrastructure spending. We're using things in Toronto called community benefits agreements. If those were integrated into some of the infrastructure projects the government is going to roll out across the country, it could create employment for people with mental health issues and also could address youth and indigenous issues. There's some real opportunity around community benefits.
10:40 a.m.
Policy Development Officer, Social Development, Finance and Administration, City of Toronto
We agree. The infrastructure projects are the greatest candidates for effective community benefits and social procurement initiatives.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
For the record, I suffer from anxiety. I had or have had an anxiety disorder for probably five or six years. About 20 to 25 years ago, I could tell you first-hand about the lack of understanding. I always made it to work, but there were days when I was going to go back home, but I was lucky enough, thank God, to have support around me to get the help I needed. The lack of support out there for people who suffer is unbelievable.
I wanted to follow up on innovation. I know, Mr. Mantler, we got cut short, but I also wanted to talk to you, Mr. Tranjan and Ms. Murphy, about innovation in mental health services support programs. Can you comment on what you've seen? One thing that frustrates me is that we seem to do the same things over and over again and send people out on the streets, and then they're back. Can you give us some new ideas on innovation?
10:40 a.m.
Policy Development Officer, Social Development, Finance and Administration, City of Toronto
I'd like to talk to you about the risk-driven community safety program that the Province of Ontario is supporting. The model came from the city of Glasgow. There have also been experiments in Manitoba. The City of Toronto has really become engaged with this model, which encourages very regular, very intensive communication across multiple sectors, across service providers representing different sectors who are going to come in contact with the same vulnerable clients.
In the past, different sectors were working with the same clients but were not sharing information. They weren't talking about this vulnerable person and they weren't making the linkages this vulnerable person needed so that they wouldn't end up back in the hospital or in jail.
It looks expensive, because we have the teams come together on a weekly basis to talk about risk situations, but our data is showing that over the longer term these clients of integrated processes are worth the investment, not only because their individual situation is being reviewed from the multi-dimensional perspective but also because relationships are being forged across the various agencies that are working together so they know to get in touch in a proactive way when an individual is released from hospital into the community. The other sectors know about it. This is an innovation we strongly support.
10:40 a.m.
Manager, Poverty Reduction Strategy, Social Development, Finance and Administration, City of Toronto
There are three more examples the Toronto poverty reduction strategy supports.
One is intense case management. As Kelly mentioned, there's enough research, some of it coming from the U.K., that it is a much better way to integrate services, and there's more bang for your buck. Sometimes that comes in the form of intense, one-to-one case management. Toronto Employment and Social Services is piloting a number of initiatives that provide more intense case management for a particular group of the caseload that is further removed from the job market.
On the youth employment front, we also have a program that is focused on youth who have experience with the judicial system. When they come to an event—a job fair, for example—we follow up with them, and then we give them access to a support person who will then follow them through the next steps of getting that job.
In the third case, we have a program that brings together recreation, which is usually not seen, although it plays a major role in poverty reduction. Toronto Public Health and again Toronto Employment and Social Services provide one-to-one support to families so they can access the full range of services, from enrolling their kids in swimming classes to getting the social assistance benefits they qualify for, and then have access to dental care and other things that Toronto Public Health offers.
10:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you very much, everybody. I'm afraid that is our time. I want to thank everybody who joined us today, both here in Ottawa and via videoconference.
As always, thank you to all the committee members for their fantastic work and to everybody who supports this meeting—the interpreters and everybody else here with us. Thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned.
