National Defence Committee on Dec. 4th, 2020

Evidence of meeting #9 for National Defence in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was family.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Access to Mental Health Services within the Canadian Armed Forces

MPs speaking

Karen McCrimmon

Cheryl Gallant

Yves Robillard

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe

Also speaking

Nora Spinks President and Chief Executive Officer, Vanier Institute of the Family

Helen Wright Director of Mental Health, Health Services Group Headquarters of the Canadian Armed Forces, Department of National Defence

Suzanne Bailey National Practice Leader, Social Work and Mental Health Training, Department of National Defence

2:50 p.m.

Conservative

Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON

I would like to suggest that we have an extra meeting. There were outstanding questions, and we have questions about the distribution of the vaccine now. We want answers to these questions. In addition to Mr. Robillard's insistence that we have more, we could have an extra meeting Wednesday before the break.

2:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Karen McCrimmon

The problem is that there won't be any parliamentary services, like translation. All those things have to be taken into account. We will discuss it at the steering committee.

2:50 p.m.

Conservative

Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON

Can you clarify, Madam Chair, if we would still have translation services until December 18?

2:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Karen McCrimmon

Nothing is firm. There might be a way to make it happen, but we cannot guarantee it, so we'll need to do some research.

2:55 p.m.

Conservative

James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB

I believe the upgrades that are being made to the virtual committee meetings are happening after December 19, and we'll lose those services for about five weeks.

2:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Karen McCrimmon

There are still restrictions in place once Parliament adjourns. We don't know when Parliament is going to adjourn, but after it adjourns, there will be restrictions, so it's something we'll have to look into. We can talk about that at the steering committee.

The meeting is adjourned.