Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to take a moment as well to thank all three witnesses for their heartfelt, compelling and quite thought-disturbing comments here today.
As a quick backdrop, I've been an MP for a year. Before here, I was the mayor of a community that encompasses Base Borden, one of the largest training bases in Canada. I worked closely with the base during my years municipally. One of the things I noticed, and certainly a lot of the people in our community noticed, was some of what has come out in comments here today.
The military police would come off the base. A lot of the individuals don't live on that base anymore. They've become part of our community, which is fantastic. They're our hockey coaches, soccer coaches or are getting involved in whatever it might be. However, a lot of times, they'll come off the base for different things. I know some of them unfortunately are suicides, but it could be assaults or whatever it might be. You were talking earlier about drug addiction, alcohol abuse and things of that nature. Even I, in regard to the suicides, unless the hospital told me, these were not things we really knew in the community.
I know last week we had Bell Let's Talk Day. Basically, the premise is, let us talk about these issues that are affecting people. As a past mayor I wonder, do all three of you think we can do a better job?
Let's talk about this. We have the 2017 suicide strategy, together with Veterans Affairs, and I thank Randall for asking that question, because it's something I want to know constantly: Where are we at? Are we improving? Where will we be? Do you think we need to find a way for the military to stress what's going on in people? That's the first question.
I'm going to ask both questions, because we have only five minutes. You can answer the second one as well.
The second question goes to the fact that you're saying you often have to travel far for help. I've stated that before. If you have mental issues, you have to drive, from where I am, an hour and a half to Toronto in traffic. It's just not good. Do you think it's something that we should really invest in, perhaps with private enterprise, on the base?
Investing in those types of agencies or institutions that can help people immediately, and veterans after the fact because a lot of them continue to live around here, do you think that is one of the key elements that could help save lives and perhaps save relationships as well?