Mr. Speaker, in countless communities across Canada, access to quality mental health care is diminishing. Growing need is being met with underfunding and neglect.
In my own riding of Ajax—Pickering, this is manifest in the loss of all in-patient mental health beds, a bad decision that risks the health and well-being of those who call west Durham home.
The booming communities of Ajax—Pickering and Whitby, more than 300,000 strong, deserve a full service hospital and those afflicted with mental health issues desperately need treatment and care in the supportive environment of their home community.
We require true leadership on mental health, leadership from the government that develops a national strategy to deal with mental health and works with our provinces to provide targeted funding so mental health services grow and succeed in our communities, not disappear.
After waiting a year and a half, the simple establishment of a Mental Health Commission is woefully inadequate. We need national action now to protect mental health services in our communities.