Debates of Oct. 4th, 2011

Opposition Motion--National Suicide Prevention Strategy

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

Mr. Speaker, 58,000 men and women died in the Vietnam War. The memorial in the United States shows all the names of those who died in Vietnam. What it does not say is that 120,000 returning soldiers from Vietnam killed themselves in the intervening 40 years. How many people actually died in Vietnam? It is more than just 58,000.

It is a tragedy when people who serve their country end up taking their own lives for whatever reason.

In talking to many veterans across this country, I found frustration, and I am sure aboriginal communities feel the same way about the bureaucratic delay. I am not blaming anyone for the bureaucratic delays in processing veterans' claims, but veterans I know of committed suicide because they just felt that nobody was listening, that nobody would help them, and they felt they had no other way out.

When we notice someone has a problem, could the hon. member suggest to the government and to all of us how quickly we should be acting in order to assist them and their families?

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I was not aware of those figures from the Vietnam War and those who returned. That is an enormous number. It is also reflective of what is happening now, and not just in our armed forces. Our armed forces are much smaller, but the problem is still just as large.

I can reference my comments from the last question. People need to know we value their being on this earth. People need to know that we value the work they have done and the sacrifices they have made. Part of expressing that value is by listening and being ready to help when we need to help.

Coupled with that is an atmosphere in which people feel safe and secure in asking for that help, because we know that is also one of the problems.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, it is easy to give a speech full of statistics, but in this case, we must look at the facts, which are so shocking.

There are about 10 suicides a day or over 3,500 suicides a year in Canada. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10 to 24. Imagine that; we have statistics on children as young as 10. Suicide rates are four to six times higher for aboriginal youth than for non-aboriginal youth. The Inuit suicide rate is more than 10 times higher than the rate for the rest of the population of Canada. Furthermore, in 2002, the WHO reported that nearly one million people had committed suicide that year, which exceeded the total number of deaths by war, homicide and civil conflicts.

Shocking does not even begin to describe those statistics. That is why last Parliament I actually introduced a bill for a national suicide prevention strategy, Bill C-297, as it is known in this Parliament.

I started working on the bill after I received a call from a man in Nunavut, Jack Hicks. He is a suicide prevention educator and researcher. He called our office and said, “You need to know what is happening in my community” and he told us about what was happening in his community. He talked about suicide and suicide prevention, and we realized we could do something legislatively. We could have a legislative answer to that. He talked about the fact that there is good work being done in provinces, in communities. In the smallest of communities and large cities there is good working being done on suicide prevention, but the problem is that it is not connected. We are not sharing best practices. We are not talking about what is working in different communities. There is no way to connect these things. So, we thought about the fact that we need a co-ordinated approach in Canada and put together this bill for a suicide prevention strategy.

In doing that, I had the great pleasure and privilege of working with the people from CASP, the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. They worked so hard on this issue of suicide prevention, generally, but also in helping us with our bill and bringing it forward. I am so grateful to them for their work on suicide prevention and our bill.

When we introduce a bill on suicide prevention, an issue like that, I can tell members that we get a lot of attention from media. For example, when a particular issue arises or a particular event in a community, we are asked to do some public speaking. That has been a journey for me. It has been an amazing experience. Unfortunately, we get to really become immersed in the issue of suicide but, fortunately, it means we get to hear about the stories around Canada and realize that this is such a terrible problem in our country but that there are solutions.

Last year, I was asked by APTN, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, to do an interview because a boy, eight years old, in a small town in northern Saskatchewan died by suicide.

Can members even imagine an eight-year-old boy knowing that is an option, having seen it in his community, knowing that it was something he could do, thinking it was an answer and, frankly, knowing how to do it?

This is happening in our communities across Canada. It is something we cannot avoid. It is something we cannot hide from any more.

Another incredible experience I have had working on my own bill is being able to work across party lines on this issue. I am thrilled that the Liberals have brought forward this motion today and that we are in this House, in this amazing, wonderful place, debating this incredibly important issue. I am thrilled that we are working on the issue of suicide prevention.

I have also worked closely with the member for Kitchener—Conestoga, on the government side of the House. He is truly a champion for suicide prevention in his own community and across Canada.

In fact, this week, the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention is holding a conference in Vancouver. It has actually honoured the two of us, both myself and the member for Kitchener—Conestoga, for our work on suicide prevention. We were both very sorry that we were not there personally to accept the award, but it has been a privilege to work with CASP and we were both so honoured to be given this award for our work.

I have also had the opportunity to work with amazing community groups who have endorsed the bill that I introduced, and I presume they would be very supportive of this motion, organizations like the Canadian Psychiatric Association. We have had municipalities come forward and endorse the bill from all around Canada. Also, individuals, mental health workers, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Assembly of First Nations. It has been, really, overwhelming and so wonderful.

I also had the chance to work with a young man in my riding, named Scott Chisholm. He is actually now living in the riding of Thunder Bay—Rainy River. He put together a photo exhibit called “Collateral Damage”. They are photos and excerpts from people talking about how suicide has touched their lives. We hosted an art show, actually, in my riding office of these photos. They are stunning. Many of the folks are from Nova Scotia.

It was really a profound experience to walk through the exhibit and see people I knew from my community sharing their stories, people who I had no idea their lives had been touched by suicide. One of the lines or one of the tag lines Scott uses to describe his project is, “Not talking about it is not working.” He is right.

Everybody who is featured in his photo exhibit talks about that, how they have never talked about how suicide has touched their lives, how they have never shared with anybody. It is an amazing experience. He is actually touring the show around Nova Scotia and hopefully will get to some other provinces as well.

In bringing forward a private member's bill, I have often been asked if it is ever going to pass or if it has any hope of being debated in the House of Commons. I have always responded that it is part of a process, it is part of building a movement around suicide prevention. A bill can be a touchstone that people can look at and rally around.

I think that is evidenced here today. When we start talking about issues in the House of Commons, when we bring forward motions or private members' bills, we never know what is next. I could never have predicted, for example, that there would be an opposition day motion on this issue where politicians across the House would have to stand and talk about the issue of suicide prevention.

When it comes to the private member's bill, as well, I have said publicly that I will pull it if it means there is a solution. If the government says it is going to specifically mandate the Mental Health Commission to take on suicide prevention, I will pull the bill. If the government says it is actually going to put this under public health's realm, that it is going to give the jurisdiction to them, I will pull the bill. If the government says it is going to bring forward a bill for a national suicide prevention strategy, I will pull mine.

This is not a partisan issue. This is about prevention. Suicide is a preventable death. If we all work together across party lines, we can prevent suicides in this country. A suicide prevention strategy is exactly what educators and advocates around the country have been asking for. It is all they have been asking for.

The motion is a wonderful step in that direction. I really hope that together we can make it a reality.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the hon. member on her speech. I thought it was a thoughtful speech.

The idea behind the motion was to spend an entire day talking about suicide and getting that national conversation going. The member for Toronto Centre is to be congratulated.

I wanted, however, to have the member focus on military suicides. Being from Halifax, I am sure this is a bit of a sensitive issue for her. I am looking at some statistics put out by DND. Of all causes of death, and I do not have the timeframe here but the pool is 2,620 deaths, of that 2,620 deaths, among males, 696 are being described as suicide and an additional 26 from mental illness. In the order of 25% of all deaths in the military during this statistical period, exclusive of females, is from suicide.

I would be interested in the member's observations particularly with respect to being from the Halifax area.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question and for sharing with us this statistic.

Statistics really help us ground our discussion here because who could even imagine that 25% of male deaths in the military would be as a result of suicide.

With that statistic being shocking, I actually want to point that we have the same issue in other groups as well. I think the member would be equally surprised to know that suicide among seniors is on the rise. That is not something I knew before I started working on this issue. It is actually something that is on the rise, and folks do not know about it.

We know that more women attempt suicide, and more men are successful. I think no matter what group we look at, whether it is gay, lesbian youth, youth generally, first nations, or people serving in the military, the numbers will surprise members. I hope they surprise us or shock us to the point that we feel we actually have to act.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for Halifax on her good work on this initiative for the past many months, and indeed, I congratulate her on the award as well.

During this debate we have focused a lot on the need for some national leadership, guidelines, and so on. That is at the heart of what we are all agreeing on today. We acknowledge the great work that many national, provincial and regional organizations are doing on this file. I shared earlier today my experience working with the Waterloo Region Suicide Prevention Council on some of its great initiatives.

For me, it is helpful to know what initiatives are being carried out in ridings in other areas of the country. I would ask my colleague to share one or two anecdotes as evidence of the work that is going on in her area, another confirmation that we simply need to provide some resources and glue to help people work better together.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting. I had a great meeting with some folks in Halifax who do injury prevention. I thought they were coming to talk to me about helmets and making sure people wear their seat belts. Actually, what they wanted to talk to me about was suicide prevention. It says a lot to me about interesting innovative things that are happening in communities, that a provincial injury prevention group would tackle the issue of suicide, because it is injury.

With that little example, I would like to pick up on something the member raised about national coordination and federal leadership. We do not know what is happening in these communities. The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, CASP, has done a great job of trying to pull together what is going on. The member opposite has done the same thing. I am trying to compile a list of what is out there.

Why do we not have just one person who could say what is working in one community and share that information with Alberta or New Brunswick? This is what we are asking for, a co-ordinated approach to share those best practices and to share those good ideas across the country.

[The Acting Speaker, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Before resuming debate, it is my duty, pursuant to Standing Order 38, to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Etobicoke North, The Environment; the hon. member for Vancouver Kingsway, Citizenship and Immigration.

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Scarborough—Guildwood.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for York West.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important subject. I want to acknowledge the work of my leader, the member for Toronto Centre, who literally has changed the channel here today. I would say that he has changed the channel for the better.

Interestingly, since the motion was introduced this morning, I have had three very intense conversations with random people about this very subject. One occurred at lunch today with a pastor friend of mine who has officiated at the funeral services for 13 people who committed suicide over the course of his pastoral career. He was first on the scene for two people as he cut them down from their hanging. He said that he cleaned up blood on the floor and counselled people two hours prior to their committing suicide. He lives with that each and every day. It affects his ministry. Of course it affects all of the families that are touched by suicide. In some respects, it just never goes away.

Today I am going to take the opportunity to talk about the mental illness aspect of suicide. I do not think there is a person in the chamber who has not been affected either directly or indirectly by someone in their family or close to their family who has a mental illness. My family is no exception.

We have walked alongside our son for the last 12 years as he has battled schizophrenia. He has battled suicide attempts. He has battled addictions. We have pretty well visited every mental health facility in the eastern region of the greater Toronto area. We have been to emergency facilities. We have been to flophouses. We have been to hospitals. We have been to emergency rooms. Dozens of incidents have resulted in heartache for our family, anger, frustration, embarrassment, all resulting from Nathan's illness.

This is personal for us. We are a well-resourced middle-class family. We have access to some pretty good resources. In fact, Nathan's stepmother is a physician. But our family experience in some respects is no different from literally thousands of other Canadian families who are left to cope with this illness. Frankly, were it not for the tireless efforts of my wife in particular but clearly other members of the family, Nathan would be dead. He would be under some bridge or in some flophouse.

Mental illness is like no other illness. It literally robs an individual of his or her life while the individual is still breathing. It is an alienating and isolating illness. It removes the individual from family support. The individual cannot sustain work. The individual simply cannot sustain relationships.

Part of our incomplete response, and it is a very incomplete response, to those who have mental illness had to do with the deinstitutionalization that went on in the 1980s or 1990s. When this occurred a lot of people were put on the street and many of them were simply not capable of handling the street. Not all people on the street have a mental illness, but it is a difficult place to be when the person is fighting mental illness. Life is a lot more complicated than simply being on the street and having a mental illness and thinking about suicide. If it were that simple we could understand it.

I walk to work every day along Metcalfe Street and there are my regulars whom I talk to from time to time. They all at one point had lives. There is a guy outside the Starbucks at Metcalfe and Slater and I wonder what his life was like prior to begging for money.

Our experience has been with psychotic breaks. Nathan was enrolled in a post-secondary institution when he had his first psychotic break, although he may well have had previous ones that we simply did not recognize. When he was 19 he started to hear voices. Sometimes the voices told him to do things that obviously were not things that could be done. Sometimes it involved harm to himself. We have gone through the experience of arriving home and finding him unconscious, but so far, touch wood, those voices have not told him to do harm to others.

Nevertheless, he freaks out some people, particularly his female siblings. and causes all kinds of consternation for those who care for him the most. Probably he is more dangerous to himself than he is to others, but he causes a lot of turmoil for his caregivers. As I say, we are a well-resourced family and I can only imagine how difficult it must be for single mothers or other people who are not as well resourced.

I will try to avoid wearing my partisan hat, but I must admit that I have a tough time with the tough on crime agenda while l am standing for three hours in an emergency line trying to get help. It does not work for me. Yet that is the point at which Nathan is most likely to commit some criminal act. Talking about minimum mandatories to him at that stage does not mean a thing. We deal with the social services that are available to us in our community. These are the secular saints of our community, but all the time they are just scraping for resources. It is just really difficult.

Again, we live in the largest city in Canada. It is not as if there is no money, but the resources are very difficult to access. His mother acts like his advocate because he cannot or will not, and harasses people, intimidates people, yells and screams at people, reasons with people and just continually gnaws at all of the resources that need to be made available, whether it is housing, psychiatric visits, or whatever. If his mother did not do that, I dare say that we might be dealing with a suicide in our family.

This is an extraordinarily difficult issue for us, but as one of the previous speakers said, if we do not start talking about it, nothing will change. I do not think we can carry on in a civilized society like Canada and expect that if we do not get hold of this issue, things will change. Things will not change unless there is a will.

We have heard a lot of statistics in this chamber. I hope Nathan will not become a statistic. He will never be a statistic to us, but there is that possibility.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his very passionate speech. My heart, the hearts of members on this side and I am sure the hearts of every member in this House goes out to him and his family. I know that we have prayed for his son many times and we will continue to do that.

Like my colleague, since I have started talking about the initiative of the private members' bills and so on going back to motion no. 388 which dealt with suicide predators, I have had many people speak to me about suicide and inevitably they would share a personal story about something in their own family that they have dealt with. Just this past Sunday, a gentleman, probably in his mid-70s, talked to me about his son who had ended his life by suicide. He shared some of his pain.

I want to thank my colleague for highlighting the willingness to discuss this openly. As I mentioned, my colleague from the west, Dave Batters, was forthright in sharing his story, and now it is his wife, Denise.

The question I have relates to the pain that my colleague, and many of us, experience and the importance of having some piece in this strategy. How does he feel about the importance of having a clear part in this to deal not only with prevention and intervention, but also with the care for the families and communities that are left to pick up the broken pieces?

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to congratulate my hon. colleague for his work on this file. It has not been unnoticed and it has been well worthwhile.

I guess I am so far into the weeds I honestly do not have an answer. We experience it on a daily basis. We experienced it this weekend. I wish I had the magic bullet. I appreciate the efforts that all governments have made, but it is just way below an acceptable standard.

My observation in working our way through the system is that mental illness is always the poor cousin of everybody and every thing. It is the poor cousin of research and resources.

For instance, in our city when people run around saying that they are going to cut the gravy train, I know where that gravy train is going to get cut. It means, frankly, that Nathan will not have access to his acting or something like that. It is very distressing.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my friend for sharing his story and the gift of his son, Nathan, with us today.

I think the member brings focus when he speaks about Nathan to the three million Canadians who are affected by this issue. It is not just Nathan, it is his family and everyone like Nathan and their families, co-workers and all sorts of other people. It is estimated that about three million people are touched by suicide every year in this country.

I do not want to ask the member a specific question, but I wonder if he would like to comment on that particular part of the issue and on why we do not do anything about this, and the other issues that he has pointed out.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is actually 33 million who have been touched by this. There is not a person in this room that has not been touched by this. There is not one of our constituents who has not been touched by this. Why do we not do anything? It is probably stigmatization.

I spoke about the event I was at where I asked the minister a question, and a very senior person in the Canadian military talked about his difficulties with mental illness. It is tremendously difficult to avoid the stigmatization, particularly if one is a warrior. They would not be up to speed. Even here, sharing what I have shared, it does not exactly fit with my own image of myself.

These are difficult issues and I think that is one of the major reasons why we do not talk about it. Maybe we are embarrassed, or whatever, and we are just not able to talk about it.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have listened to my colleague and others and it is the first time in the 12 years I have been here that we all seem to be talking to each other about something that is really important. It is nice to hear that we all care and we are all saying the right things, but where do we go after today? Will we vote on the motion and pass it after saying nice things, and then wake up tomorrow and go our own way again?

We have been talking about this issue for many years. Never have we talked about it in the context of an opposition day motion that the Liberal leader put forward. I am grateful he did that because it gives us an opportunity to talk about something that nobody wants to talk about. Nobody wants to talk about the suffering that is going on in the streets of our cities, in our houses and our families. The suffering is taking place, but nobody tells anybody else what goes on in their houses.

We all keep it hidden because nobody wants to talk about the difficulties, whether it is a child suffering from a drug addiction or a child with schizophrenia. Nobody wants to talk about that. Everything is wonderful in this world we live in. There are a few people who do not have places to live and a few people that go to food banks, but otherwise everybody in the world is good. It would be great if we could solve all those problems when there are so many people in this country suffering from mental illness in one capacity or another. We heard the numbers today. Another 10 people will die today by suicide because of a feeling of hopelessness and none of us seem to be able to see it.

There was a young man who was part of my extended family and grew up with my son. He was fine and just like any other kid. He did not cause any trouble and went to school. He did not get great marks, but he was doing okay. He was 20 years old in the second year of college and had challenges with his parents because he was not doing well enough. He had been at my house for supper and he and my son did their homework together. We said goodbye and that we would see him on the weekend.

The next day his mother called to see if Shawn happened to be at my house. I said no, he was not at my house, he was at her house. She said he did not come home the night before and she thought maybe he had stayed at my place. We all called around and could not find him. Then we realized his backpack was gone from his bedroom, so we did what people do. We called the police and everybody else there was to call, but there was no locating Shawn.

Some months later his shoes were found on the side of the Niagara Escarpment. His parents had found a prescription for anti-depressants in his drawer at home. The doctor had said that he was being treated for severe depression, which none of us had any idea of. The doctor could not tell his parents because he was 20 years old and he needed their son's permission to tell them. Needless to say, that is how we found out that he was suffering from severe depression. Otherwise, none of us had any idea.

From the day they found his shoes until today, which is 14 years, a day does not go by that I and my family do not think about him and wonder why we did not see any of the signs of depression that he was suffering from. How did we miss it? It is a mistake for all of us. We need to be able to see the signs and know that there are services available to help people when they are suffering from that level of depression. I am sure that as long as I, my husband and especially my son and his family are alive, we will think about him often and blame ourselves for not seeing the signs.

That is only one section of all of this because the problems are severe. If we can find money for everything else in this world of ours, why can we not make it a priority to find money to have a serious mental health strategy, which would include a strategy to prevent suicide?

Look at how many times in the last couple of weeks we have heard about young kids committing suicide because they were gay, or because they were being bullied and could not handle it anymore. It is way over the hill with these things that are happening, and we are allowing them to happen.

With all the great things we talk about in this House, yet we cannot deal with the issues of mental illness in this country. We must begin to come forward and talk about it as Canadians and find answers.

Those answers are there. It is encouraging to know how much everyone cares today about this issue, and hearing my colleague talk about his own personal problems in his family. What happens to the families that do not have a support system, who do not know where to go, and who have no where to go?

These young people, and these older people, end up on the streets. When we see people begging on the streets, they are not there because they want to be there. They are there because they are not well. They are not mentally or physically well or they would not be sitting on a street corner in the middle of winter begging for money. However, we walk by them and do nothing. To me, it is a major problem when we walk by and do nothing. That individual is one of God's children, just like we are, and deserves help and assistance to move forward.

I would hope that as a result of this discussion today we actually do more than just adopt our opposition day motion, but that we truly make a commitment physically, financially, and mentally that we are not going to stop. We have four years ahead of us before we have to worry about elections. Maybe the one thing that the House could do in the next four years is actually put forward a mental health strategy for the country and put the dollars behind it. I think if we could do that over four years we would leave here feeling as if we actually are accomplishing something.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Speaker, as a number of people in the House have stated, there is not a single member who has not been touched by this through a friend, family, or in their community. I am fully aware of the fact that those who are well-to-do, as the hon. member previously mentioned, have a hard time struggling with addressing mental health issues in their families, let alone suicide. Most families cannot afford the fees for a psychologist. It is reprehensible in this modern day and age.

As I am sitting here, it is occurring to me, and I would appreciate the member's comment on this, we are moving forward and several years from now we will have a new health accord. There are two issues. Is it not time that we started opening up to the public a dialogue on what the federal responsibilities are and how the federal government should be delivering on its responsibilities, including working with territories, provinces, and first nation governments, which we have to remember is an order of government, in the delivery of our services? Does she agree that mental health, including suicide, should probably be part of that dialogue?

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly would hope that it would be. Frankly, what we need to do is look at that health accord and start dealing with mental health right at the top. Many of the people who are suffering from a variety of different parts of this package of mental health that we talked about, if they were mentally better, if they were physically and mentally stronger, maybe it would be less of a strain on the rest of the whole health system.

People who are suffering from depression, and so on and so forth, are bound to be at the doctor far more often because of a variety of different illnesses. I would like to see the mental well-being of Canadians to be the number one thing. Start there and all of the other things might fall into place.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the member's very heartfelt speech.

The member mentioned a mental health strategy for Canada. I know she is supportive of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which is working on the development of a mental health strategy. Consultations are currently under way. The commission expects to release the strategy in 2012. There will be elements of suicide prevention in it.

When we start working together with all the different levels of government and community organizations, it is very important for all of us to be on the same page. We are looking for leadership and local solutions.

Could the member tell us, in her opinion, how can municipalities and communities get together to share their successes to help address this horrible tragedy of suicide?

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Speaker, we have to start thinking outside the box.

Let me tell the member about a problem I had in my area as a metro councillor in the city of Toronto. There was a problem with street prostitution. Many of the young women were homeless drug addicts, there for all kinds of reasons. I was tired of moving them from my area to someone else's area with police enforcement. I brought all of the appropriate officials together and we did some serious brainstorming. I developed the first time offender's diversion program, the so-called John school. That was thinking outside the box.

We need to think differently as to how we can solve these problems. The current way is clearly not meeting the needs and is not enough. I do welcome the recommendations that will come from the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

However, everything is taking too long. We are being too bureaucratic in trying to figure out our answers. We need to work with the cities and provinces. We must come together. We all recognize the problem. We need to talk about it every day to figure out solutions. I hope as a result of today's discussion we will do that.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Kitchener—Conestoga, a member who has been a leading and indeed an award-winning advocate on the issue of suicide prevention.

I also want to say to the member for Scarborough—Guildwood that it was an honour to be in this place to hear one of the most courageous speeches I have been able to witness in my young career. I want to thank him for that.

One of the most devastating and tragic events a family, a friend, a colleague or a community can face is the suicide of someone they know. Suicide does not discriminate and it can happen to anyone, as we heard, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity.

We had a very high profile situation right here in Ottawa when young Daron Richardson took her life last year. The grief and outpouring of emotion that was displayed had a profound impact on many parliamentarians. Many MPs were honoured to join the Richardsons here on the Hill this past February to help the family launch the Do It for Daron suicide awareness campaign. This campaign has raised awareness of teen suicide in the Ottawa community.

While there are many contributing factors to suicide, mental illness is the major one. People with mood disorders are at particularly high risk of suicide. Studies indicate that more than 90% of suicide victims suffer from a mental illness or substance abuse problem. By addressing the underlying issues associated with suicide, such as mental illness, we can save lives.

Community engagement is critical for our individual well-being. Support or lack of support from a community can have a significant impact on an individual's mental health and on an individual's decision to end his or her life. Our government believes in the power of Canadian communities and is actively supporting efforts and initiatives that will help contribute to the health of Canadians.

I will tell members about the ways this government is helping communities understand the factors contributing to mental illnesses.

In 2007 the government created the Mental Health Commission of Canada as an independent arm's-length organization to provide a national focal point for mental illness. The government has invested $130 million in the commission over 10 years to advance work on mental health issues. The commission has extended its reach into Canadian communities through many of its initiatives, such as its anti-stigma campaign and work to improve access to information and best practices. The commission is also developing a national mental health strategy which is to be released in 2012.

The commission is undertaking a groundbreaking project to investigate mental illness and homelessness. In 2008 the government provided $110 million over five years for this project. The project is taking place in five Canadian cities: Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton. This project provides housing to homeless people with a mental illness so they can concentrate on improving their mental health.

We can agree that improved mental health will contribute to reducing the risk of suicide. This innovative project has the potential to make Canada a world leader in providing services to homeless people living with mental illness. This project has taken more than 1,000 mentally ill and homeless people off the streets and has facilitated access to community mental health services, including suicide prevention programs for many more.

In Vancouver the program is focusing on homeless people with mental illnesses and addictions. Over 450 people have been involved and over 220 have been housed.

In Winnipeg the program is working to address homelessness within the aboriginal population. As hon. members may know, the Winnipeg homeless population is estimated to be 75% to 80% aboriginal. In that city over 400 people have been involved and over 119 people now have homes.

In Toronto 30% to 40% of the homeless people come from minority communities. Racism, discrimination and stigma are barriers that can impact mental health. The project is working to address the removal of these barriers. Over 440 people have become project participants in Toronto, and as of March of this year, 175 have been housed.

In Moncton and Montreal the projects are providing services for homeless people in English and French speaking communities. As of March, work in these cities had resulted in over 580 mentally ill homeless people joining the program and 259 being housed.

When we speak of community well-being, we must also recognize the unique needs of first nations and Inuit communities. Our Minister of Health is from the north and knows first-hand the impact and rate of suicide in these communities.

Our government recognizes that suicide among aboriginal young people is an urgent matter. We are working to reduce the rates of suicide among aboriginal youth across Canada and in the north.

Through Health Canada, the government invested $65 million from 2005-10 to establish the national aboriginal youth suicide prevention strategy. Budget 2010 provided $75 million from 2010-15 to continue this support to communities and address aboriginal youth suicide. This is a $10 million increase over five years.

Aboriginal youth suicide programs are one of several Health Canada initiatives that fund communities to address mental health and addictions. Other services include access to mental health counselling, addictions treatment and prevention, and mental health promotion activities. These programs are demonstrating positive results, including increased youth engagement, skills development, and improved coping and leadership skills.

Our government is also supporting broader efforts to understand the mental health of Canadians. That is why in 2012 Statistics Canada will administer a mental health survey as part of its Canadian community health survey program.

This mental health survey will provide a comprehensive picture of mental health among the Canadian population. It will provide insight into the extent and distribution of selected mental disorders. It will also examine access and use of formal and informal mental health care services and supports. Policy makers and researchers will use this information to adjust and develop policies and programs to meet the mental health needs of Canada's population.

Mental health in the workplace is also important. Many of us spend more time at our place of work than anywhere else. Good mental health at work is important not just for the individual, but also for the employer, the community and families.

Our government supports positive mental health in the workplace. On June 16 of this year we announced funding of $320,000 for the development of a national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace. This is a collaborative undertaking led by the Mental Health Commission of Canada in partnership with the Canadian Standards Association, the Bureau de normalization du Québec, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The objective of the national standard is to provide employers with a set of best practices which, when properly applied, would lead to measurable improvements in psychological health and safety in the workplace. This project will make it easier for employers to take steps to promote mental health in the workplace. Canada will be the first country in the world to develop such a standard.

In closing, our government's investments in understanding and addressing mental health at the community level is just one way that we are demonstrating our commitment to improving mental health and reducing the rate of suicide in Canada.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour of sitting on the health committee with the hon. member for Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon. I appreciate all the support he shows for health issues for Canadians, especially the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Given that the federal government has already made huge investments, particularly with the first nations and Inuit mental health and addiction programs, from mental health promotion to addictions prevention, crisis counselling, treatment and after care services, I am wondering if my colleague could respond as to why the government should continue targeting aboriginal people, particularly aboriginal youth.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the parliamentary secretary for his service in this area as well.

As we have heard throughout the day today, the suicide rate in aboriginal communities is disproportionately high. We need to take concrete steps to address that. We need to assist those communities.

As I said in my speech, we believe in a community-based approach where we are not imposing a standard on a community but working with the community to come up with ways to address the issue.

We have invested $65 million over five years, from 2005-10, and have increased that to $75 million over the next five years to renew that strategy. We have been funding mental health counselling, addictions treatment, youth suicide prevention and other things to address the specific concern the member has. We need to take concrete steps to address the issue of the high rate of suicide among aboriginal youth.

[Gail Shea, Conservative, Minister of National Revenue]

Mr. Speaker, there are many aboriginal communities in Canada and many in his province of British Columbia. We know that suicide is a very horrific issue for families to deal with.

I wonder if the member would share with this House everything the federal government is doing to address the high rates of suicide in aboriginal communities in particular.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated, we have been there with funding in the amount of $65 million between 2005 and 2010 and $75 million going forward.

As I also indicated, the issues of a first nations community in my riding of Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon are different from the Minister of Health's riding in the north. We want to ensure that we are working with the communities, with the first nations and with the provinces and territories to come up with the best strategies and the best practices. Funding is part of it, but part of it is how we work with our partners in the provinces and the territories and with the first nations to deliver services that will benefit those at-risk youth, including in aboriginal communities.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon for his insightful remarks. I also extend my thanks to the leader of the Liberal Party for bringing this motion forward today and to the member for Halifax for her work on suicide prevention and for tabling a private member's bill in regard to that.

It is important that we, as a Parliament, are the leaders in doing all that we can to end the silence around this very tragic epidemic. We need to do what we can to reduce the stigma of those families who have been the victims of suicide. On this side of the House, we are committed to doing all that we can.

Last Thursday, I had the honour of tabling in this chamber my private member's bill, which deals with this very issue, Bill C-300.

We have a lot of good work already being done by hundreds of community groups throughout Canada, and most of these, if not all, are volunteer groups. We have the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. It has done amazing work over the years developing its blueprint. I congratulate the association on its efforts. It works with very little encouragement from other levels of government, but it has done amazing work for us.

We have the Ontario Association for Suicide Prevention. In my own area, we have the Waterloo Region Suicide Prevention Council, which has done just amazing work in the Waterloo region. Just recently I had the honour being in my colleague's riding, the Minister of State for Science and Technology , for a golf tournament that was raising funds to raise awareness of suicide prevention issues. I thank them for that good work.

Another agency with which I have had the honour of working over the last two years is called Your Life Counts. This is a group of people who voluntarily do work on the Internet. They provide Internet resources to young people especially who are dealing with suicidal thoughts and struggling with issues in life that are difficult for them to handle, challenges that face all of our youth. They are doing good work in providing that Internet access but they do not end just simply with the Internet access. They then offer personal services to people who contact them.

I will highlight another story, which we have all heard numerous times today, for those who may not have been here earlier. The story is about my colleague, Dave Batters, who tragically ended his life a few years ago. I congratulate his family for the great work they are doing in bringing awareness to this issue. I have had contact with Denise Batters since we started this initiative. She draws our attention to the YouTube video that highlights some ways that we can raise awareness around this issue.

Those groups have worked hard on our behalf and all they are asking for is some federal coordination, some federal leadership, and that is exactly the motivation for my private member's bill.

I will not read the entire bill but I would like to highlight some of the actions that my bill would ask for.

The bill would formally define suicide as a public health issue and a health and safety priority. It would improve public awareness of suicide and its related issues. It would make statistics publicly accessible, promote collaboration and knowledge exchange. I think this is one of the things we have heard many times today. If we could exchange the best practices that are already being implemented across our country, we could do so much more.

The bill would define and share the best practices and get the research that is being done out of the classroom, so to speak, and into the hands of those who are actually doing the work on the ground.

Finally, there would be a responsibility on the part of the government agency to report back regularly to Canadians.

The number of suicides in Canada is a great tragedy. We have heard many personal stories today. We have heard the story of the Richardson family. Many of us will remember the story of the Kajouji family here in Ottawa who lost their daughter. This particular suicide was done at the hands of an Internet predator who used the Internet to actually encourage suicide.

My motion in the fall of 2009 was to encourage our government to implement within the Criminal Code clarity as to the penalties for those who would encourage suicide. We already know that encouraging someone to commit suicide is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. What was not clear is whether that included technologies such as Internet and computer system. That was my motivation for that motion.

It is estimated that there are 10 suicides a day in Canada. If we take that on a monthly basis, that is the equivalent of a large airliner going down every month and every person in that airliner dying. If that were happening, I think there would be a huge call for action. That is exactly what we are hearing today with this motion. That is the motivation for my private member's bill. It is my hope that, through these initiatives and others, we will actually see some action on these issues.

I just want to read the motion for those who may be watching because it is important to get the entire context of what is said here.

That the House agree that suicide is more than a personal tragedy, but is also a serious public health issue and public policy priority; and, further, that the House urge the government to work cooperatively with the provinces, territories, representative organizations from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people, and other stakeholders to establish and fund a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, which among other measures would promote a comprehensive and evidence-driven approach to deal with this terrible loss of life.

At this point I will stop for a moment and offer my heartfelt condolences and sympathies to those who have had to deal with this tragedy. It has been mentioned many times in this chamber today that there is not one person who has not in some way been touched this tragedy, some closer than others, some immediate family members and others close friends and colleagues.

The grief that people experience when they lose a loved one who is close to them can only be described by the people who going through that grief. My family and I have had our own share of grief over these past five months. In fact, it is five months ago today that Betty passed away. I can say that the grief is real but I cannot imagine how much more profound that grief must be for those who are left with the question and the additional emotional burden of wondering what they could have done, what they should have done or why they did not see the signs, all of those questions that I assume must come crashing in on them.

I think part of our overall approach to this issue needs to include, at some point, ways and means in which we can encourage communities with resources as to how they can walk alongside those who have experienced this tragedy.

I indicated earlier today that one of my favourite quotes as it relates to suicide prevention is the quote by Margaret Somerville, the famous ethicist from McGill University. She says:

Hope is the oxygen of the human spirit; without it our spirit dies....

I think that capsulizes what we are looking at here. We are trying to find ways to give hope, hope to people who are dealing with suicidal thoughts, for sure, needs to be our motivation, but also hope for those who are working on the ground and who have been struggling as volunteers without adequate resources, as they struggle with their efforts.

Any of the investments that we make in trying to move this ahead need to keep at the heart of it the hope that we are trying to give to people.

I will conclude with some of the statistics that I think will shock us into action in terms of the number of Canadians each year who are losing their lives to suicide. It is roughly 4,000 a year. Among our aboriginal population, t estimates show that it is five to seven times beyond that, and that is just counting the suicides. It does not counting those who may have tried to commit suicide and their emotional trauma.

At the heart of what we are trying to do here is to extend that hope to people who are dealing with suicidal thoughts and to provide the framework that will actually help those organizations on the ground that are trying to continue the good work they have started.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health]

Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to offer my heartfelt thanks to my colleague from Kitchener—Conestoga not only for all the work he has done on this issue but also for Bill C-300 which he brought forward.

He opened his speech by saying that we must end the silence. We have had that opportunity today in the House. I commend all members who have contributed to this debate and discussion because it is something that affects all Canadians.

My question for my colleague regards the link between mental health and suicide. He is aware that the World Health Organization estimates that: 90% of all suicide victims have some kind of mental health condition, often depression or substance abuse; suicide is the most common cause of death for people with schizophrenia; both major depression and bipolar disorders account for 15% to 25% of all deaths by suicide in patients with severe mood disorders.

Would the member explain how important it is for the government to continue funding research through the Mental Health Commission of Canada?

He mentioned best practices. Does the member have any ideas as to how we could better work with the municipalities, communities and different service groups in order to bring these best practices together?