Madam Speaker, as I said in my speech, one of the areas in which the federal government could show leadership is by clearly understanding what it is responsible for. It is responsible for veterans, the armed forces and the RCMP. Many of those people are affected by significant mental health issues. The federal public service is an area where we can show leadership and do more work.
The member mentioned aboriginal issues and the minister has discussed this as well. We must recognize that we have been unable to do what is required without programs in place at the federal level. We need to be leaders in the field.
I appreciate the member's relatively kind remarks, which I am not used to from the other side, with respect to my previous provincial experience. The provinces are sensitive to the federal government telling them what it is they must do. However, that is not how it works.
I hope that the mental health issue will be front and centre on the table during the government's next round of discussions with the provinces. I believe the provinces will be ready and willing to discuss it. Of course, the provinces will want to deal with the issue of funding. However, the federal government could lead with best practices as the provinces have been doing better than others in that regard and have shown some success at reducing the number of incidents.
We have a universal problem with inaccessibility to necessary services across the country particularly by adolescents. We cannot look in the mirror and say that we have done enough. There have been many instances of kids running away from home with nowhere to go. We do not have the treatment centres we require in Canada at the provincial level.
Those are some ideas. I would be happy to discuss others. If one were to enter into discussions with--