Status of Women Committee on Nov. 14th, 2022

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Thank you, Sonia, for your leadership on this.

I think you and some of our South Asian colleagues have been very clear about how important and devastating stigma is, more so in some communities than others. Again, people want support, not stigma or judgment.

I think what we're learning is that we need tailored approaches to stigma based on an understanding of what it looks and feels like in certain communities. I was very interested to see the Black therapists network in Edmonton. They know that they are dealing with a great deal of stigma in their community.

Again, what can we do for first nations, Inuit and Métis? The history of residential schools was that emotions got—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much, Minister Bennett. We're way over time there. I tried to give you a little bit, but we are going in a different direction.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'm going to pass it over for the next two and a half minutes to Andréanne Larouche.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Minister, thank you again for agreeing to appear.

Before discussing another topic, I'll come back to what you said in response to questions from my colleague, Ms. Barron. You confirmed that your efforts to implement the national action plan and standards were delaying the allocation of money. However, those financial resources are what's most urgently needed to help victims and people suffering from mental health problems. The more standards that are added, the later the money is in arriving and the more it delays implementation of the plan, meaning that organizations don't have access to the help they need.

That said, I'd like to talk to you about the federal government's responsibility in helping young girls struggling with mental health issues.

My colleague Dominique Vien spoke about cyberbullying. Last week, I met with a member of the team that produced the documentary Backlash. The team is currently conducting an awareness campaign on cyber-violence and has put up an online petition people can sign. Their demand of the federal government is clear: stand up to giants like GAFAM—Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft—and pass a law to counter online hate and cyber-violence.

My colleague asked what the federal government could do to address cyber-violence. This group's demand is one example. Have you had discussions with your colleagues about this? What is the status of the bill to address online hate?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

I think that act will be very important. Since Amanda Todd's suicide, a number of behaviours have been criminalized. We need the best possible legislation to resolve this problem.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

The figures I have before me indicate that 85% of social network users have apparently suffered some form of violence, that 50% of women have reported that online platforms are not safe spaces for sharing their ideas, and that women are 27% more likely than men to be bullied online.

In 2020, according to statistics, there were 14,900 offences related to bullying. It must be acknowledged that, without a law...

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Andréanne—

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Minister, I encourage you to reflect on it and discuss it with your colleagues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Minister, I'll give you about 10 seconds to respond to that, very quickly, and then we're on to the next member.

Go ahead.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Candice, would you want to explain what you've been up to?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We're not going to have a lot of time, so I'll pass it over to Lisa Marie. Candice, we may be asking for more on that from you.

Go ahead, Lisa Marie.

[Lisa Marie Barron, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you.

I have a lot I want to ask in a short period of time, so I'm going to try to keep this succinct. I hope I can get some quick answers from you, Minister.

Following on my last question about the toxic drug supply crisis, and reiterating that currently the government is not following the recommendations of their very own expert task force, I'm wondering if the minister could share with us when the government will begin taking a health-based approach to toxic drug substances instead of a criminal one.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Yes, absolutely. You're absolutely correct: We have to move from the criminal justice system into health and social services.

The reason we were able to do the agreement with British Columbia is that they have put those health and social services in place, such that we will be able to choose to work with them on public health as well as public safety indicators, as that decriminalization for small amounts will come into effect in the spring.

We are also at the same time following on the expert task force. Obviously, this community of safe supply is hugely important as we move forward, to make sure that we can.... There is no recovery model for people who are dead.

[Lisa Marie Barron, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you, Minister.

The other question I had is around the overrepresentation of first nations people. We know that first nations people are five times more likely to experience an overdose and three times more likely to experience a fatal overdose. This is within British Columbia stats, and I know these stats coincide across Canada. Also, on my recent visit to Nunavut, it was clear that there is a lack of access to many of the mental health supports—and all health supports—for people in northern and remote communities.

This is specific to a call for justice that was brought up in this committee. I don't want to read the whole thing because I will run out of time, but call for justice 3.4 is about providing supports across Canada for all those who need them. I'm wondering if the government will be fulfilling this call for justice to ensure that our first nations communities have access to adequate mental health supports.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Minister, you're left with 10 seconds.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Absolutely. This is something that I've worked on very closely with my colleague Minister Hajdu. It is also one that, as we expect.... In our urban centres as well, we have to have access to trauma-informed, culturally safe care.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

We're now into our last session. What we'll do is have four minutes each. It's going to be Anna Roberts, Michelle, and then Marc Serré.

I'll start off with Anna. Go ahead.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here.

You talked about funding, and we talk about the urgency of people dying. We talk about the numbers. I think my colleague Michelle referenced earlier with Minister Ien how we dropped from 10th to 30th out of 38.

Here's my question. We heard from witnesses. One of the things we heard from Chelsea from Covenant House Vancouver was that there were youth issues and street outreach. They're short of outreach shelters to support trafficked youth. Girls are three times more at risk and are left behind in mental health. There's violence against women. Her recommendations—again, I talked about this earlier—were about the need for more housing and the need for more help for the homeless by investing in our youth programs, mental health protection and transportation.

One of the other witnesses—I won't go through all of them—was Gabrielle from Assembly of Seven Generations, who mentioned that 30% of youth show trauma when taken from their homes. There's a housing shortage. She talked about staffing people and professionals with the expertise to assist our mental health situation. She talked about homes for youth.

They go on and on. I don't want to go through the whole list, but there are the poverty issues, the inflation issue and the cost of running these programs.

You talked about the funding. When someone is sick or has a heart attack, they go to the hospital and people act immediately. We're losing people by the minute.

Why are we holding off on the funding when we already know from witnesses that we're struggling?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

The funding continues in the substance use and addiction programs, and in the mental health promotion innovation fund. Those dollars continue to flow. We are working with our partners to save those lives.

We are also working with my colleagues, like Minister Hussen, on the rapid housing. When you have the need to have social services and wraparound services for that rapid housing, we're working with the provinces and territories to make sure they're there. We know the kids aging out of care have very special needs for housing. We know people coming out of jail have very special needs for housing. We are trying in the national housing strategy to make sure that mental health isn't over here, housing over there and social services over there.

Also, as you say, apprehending children has been a devastating policy. That is what Minister Hajdu and Minister Miller have been working on. They're trying to make sure that it stops forever.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

I'm going to pass it over to my colleague, Michelle.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you.

Thank you to my colleague.

Minister Bennett, I'm going to be very blunt. Everything you just said is exactly what is happening. It is all siloed. There are no wraparound services. This is why we've fallen. This is why we have children who are dying. This is why we are 35th out of 38.

There is good intention here, but the execution is desperately lacking. For you to say that people go to the emergency room on a Friday and their family doctor knows on Monday is false. Most people don't even have a family doctor so, no, they don't know.

The other question.... What I would love to see, because I know you care, and we have this great reputation on this committee.... Everybody here cares. Where is this action plan that you're speaking of? Can we see it? What is the timeline? When can we expect to see these results? Everyone around here has heard this over and over again.

The stigma.... We're way past that. We are way past the stigma. This is action time. Where is the action plan? When can we see it? Can you please table it to the committee?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Michelle, what I was describing was the promise of integrating youth services. What I was describing was the fact that in that evidence-based approach that has seen such important—

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Where is it?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Six years ago, there was one site. There are now 25 sites. The promise of sites coast to coast to coast.... We are getting there, because we are supporting people doing things differently—