I'm very happy you asked this question. It's something that's very near and dear to my heart. I was a former ambassador for Bell Let's Talk. I've been very public about some of my own challenges.
You have half a million Canadians who miss work each week due to mental illness. That is sizable. Each one is a case of somebody who is suffering. Crassly—if I can add this, too—cumulatively, that is a real hit on the economy.
Workers are people. People have complex lives. They have complex needs. I think there are two ways that I, as Minister of Labour, want to try to close this gap for workers. Number one is making mental health a component of workplace health and safety. Number two is the right to disconnect.
Mental health is health. You hear that increasingly often. It's a good thing, but we really have to absorb that and we have to absorb that in our public policy. We need to consider it, and such injuries associated with it need to covered by occupational health and safety requirements as much as physical injuries, because mental health is physical health too. By not addressing this, the Canadian economy is losing an estimated $6 billion each year in productivity. An estimated one in three workplace disability claims in Canada right now is related to mental illness.
It's something I take very seriously. It underlines a lot of what we are trying to do right now in labour.
On things like the right to disconnect, I'd say to watch this space. The idea of the right to disconnect was a policy that was being contemplated well before COVID, but now, when we look at everything that has changed in the workplace as a result of COVID, it has never been more pressing.