Madam Speaker, it is interesting that 30 years ago Canada was a world leader and had the expertise on this issue. We in Canada--not a province, but Canada--held the very first symposia on this issue. The world listened, and 30 years ago countries of the world, such as the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, picked up this Canadian movement and moved on it. We never did.
As the hon. member for Toronto Centre said earlier today, this is not a blame on anybody. Different political parties formed government, and all tended not to deal with it, I think for the simple reason that we do not see mental illness being as important as physical illness. Mental illness is still not seen as a medically necessary service. We still do not see it that way.
Until we recognize mental illness as part of the continuum of health that is physical, mental, social, psychological and other things, we will not understand that we need to do something about it and we will not follow the extremely good example that we started 30 years ago, after which different levels of government let the ball drop. That is the sadness of the whole thing.
It does not mean we should continue. We should start doing something now. We have the expertise and are in fact able to do this very well.