Debates of Oct. 20th, 2022

Mental Health

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

Absolutely, Madam Chair. Coordination, communication and collaboration with all of the provinces and territories is a priority. I think that the provinces will have the capacity to deliver therapeutic mental health services. Planning is very important. Over the next year, we need to coordinate, just as the member said.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Madam Chair, I am really glad we are here to talk about the mental health emergency that is taking place.

On October 5, I asked the Speaker if we could have an emergency debate and I was not granted permission to do that. I am grateful that all parties have come together to have this important conversation.

I am going to read a quote from Ellen Cohen and Kim Hollihan from the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, CAMIMH. They state:

Mental health is an integral part of health, and Canada cannot pride itself on a universal healthcare system that does not include universal mental healthcare. The development of national standards for mental health and substance use services cannot delay the introduction of the Canada Mental Health Transfer. Instead, these standards must go hand in hand with the creation of the Canada Mental Health Transfer, rather than the sequential approach that the government is currently taking.

Since 65 national health organizations sent an open letter to the minister saying that the time is now for the government to fulfill its campaign promise, will the minister finally listen and deliver the help that Canadians desperately need and deliver on the transfer?

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

Madam Chair, I thank the member for his amazing work on this.

One of the reasons we wanted to have this debate tonight is that his party's request did not meet the criteria for an emergency debate and opposition days can do that. We decided that we would make sure this debate took place. I thank the member for his initiative and all the hard work.

I met with the CAMIMH members the morning of the gala, when our colleague, the member for Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, received an award, and I walked them through what we needed to do. I think a lot of them understand that we need to put in place the kind of transparency and accountability for Canadians that we see in the child care arrangements. This is something we will all be able to work on together, but it will not stop us from delivering the kinds of programs we are doing on substance use and mental health innovation, as well as the programs within the bilateral agreements, with the $600 million a year that is ongoing.

We will work as quickly as we can to put in place the principles for that transfer and then negotiate with the provinces and territories to ensure that data comes back and that there is transparency and accountability for all Canadians.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Madam Chair, part of the minister's last answer was where I wanted to go with my question. It is on data and the importance of the provinces and territories sharing data, not only for the federal government and for our use to understand what is going on in Canada, but for local communities to understand how their data relates to that of similar communities and the best practices that can be transferred, including for the opioid crisis and peer support workers. I know $2.9 million is coming into Guelph for five peer support projects. They are community-driven projects for mental health.

Could the minister comment on how data can include mental health but also opioids and things related to peer support systems?

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

Madam Chair, I thank the member for Guelph for all of his advocacy and for hosting us in Guelph, where we learned a lot about the great things happening on the ground there not only at the university but throughout his community.

We cannot pretend that we can go forward without being able to fund what works and stop funding what does not work, or without understanding the areas of greater need and being able to put additional resources there. We can only do that with data. Last week, I was pleased that the OECD thanked me for my intervention on data at the world mental health conference.

Even with the opioid crisis, at the moment, the Public Health Agency of Canada has placed federal public servants in each of the provinces and territories just so we can get data on the opioid crisis. With the pandemic, the provinces have been struggling, and we cannot do this without the appropriate data.

As we have seen with COVID, we now have better data on immunizations, diseases, emergency visits and ICUs. I hope that will transfer into a real ability, as I am meeting with the health ministers next month, for us all to understand that Canadians deserve to know what is working.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Madam Chair, I am honoured to take part in this evening's debate. As those in this chamber know, I have been a huge proponent of raising mental health issues and suicide prevention issues since the first day I was elected.

I know we have made huge strides as a society when it comes to mental health, but we have so much further to go. There was a time not so long ago when people were embarrassed to talk about their struggles. Feeling sad, hurt or upset was something to be ashamed of. Growing up, we were taught to internalize our feelings. We were taught that we did not air our dirty laundry in public. We were taught that any showing of weakness was a failure of character. It was always just better to keep it inside.

I want to say that this was just a sign of the times, but I think it goes much deeper than that. I believe we felt this way because we were scared. We did not understand the full impact of depression. We did not understand the impact that mental health has on physical health. We did not understand how many people actually struggle with mental health issues.

Over my time as a member of Parliament and in the work I did previously, I have heard from first responders, firefighters, police, paramedics, nurses, soldiers and everyday Canadians that even though we can now talk openly about these issues, there is still a stigma attached to them. No one actually owns up to it, but it is still there. Even with as far as we have come, those feelings of weakness of character still persist.

Education has been key, and recent statistics show that mental illness will directly affect one-third of, or 9.1 million, Canadians over the course of their lives. Prior to the pandemic, in any given year, one in five Canadians experienced a mental health issue.

While statistics are not yet available postpandemic, we know that the number of Canadians who have experienced mental health issues will be more than one-third. The effect COVID restrictions have had on mental health may never fully be known, but they will last generations. Being locked up and confined to our homes is not natural. By nature, we are social beings. We need that personal interaction.

Over the course of the last few years, we have witnessed a change in how we deal with mental illness. Bell Let's Talk Day is just one example. We have tried to talk more about depression and mental health. We have talked more openly about suicide. We have talked more openly about post-traumatic stress disorder.

We see more programs, more apps and more supports being offered, and while this is good, it is not good enough. We need to work together with the provinces to find a way to put mental health on par with physical health. We need to work together to find more support services for those who are suffering from severe and persistent mental health issues. I often say there is no health without mental health. As a matter of fact, the minister just mentioned that same thing. We need government and business to work together to effect this change.

In all of the recent studies done, we see that poor mental health costs Canada $50 billion a year in lost productivity. Mental health problems account for approximately 30% of the short- and long-term workplace disability claims. This is an astronomical sum to me. I cannot help but believe there has to be a better way.

My grandma used to say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This old adage would seem to apply here. If we can recognize the symptoms and triggers, we can do a great deal of preventative work.

For every dollar spent on mental health, four dollars to $10 is returned to the economy. Improving access to treatments for depression could boost our economy by $32 billion a year.

This is why New Zealand tabled its “Wellbeing Budget” in 2019, a groundbreaking departure from the norm. This budget provided $455 million for new frontline mental health services, and every aspect of government policy is viewed through a mental health lens. Suicide prevention received a $40-million boost. The government worked to provide $320 million to address family and sexual violence to improve the lives and mental health of children.

I tell people back home that I am the luckiest person alive. Being a member of Parliament feels more like a calling than it does a job. To stand here in this chamber and have the ability to effect change is truly an honour. It is truly humbling.

I have travelled the world representing our community and our country. I have seen and experienced things that most people will only ever read about, and now I am a three-term member of Parliament representing one of the largest ridings in the country. Yesterday was my seven-year anniversary, as a matter of fact, of being a member of Parliament.

When I am asked how I got into politics, my answer is always the same: I never intended to be a politician. I fell ass-backwards into a position that I now feel I was born to be in, that I feel was maybe God's plan for me.

What I do know is that I live every day working tirelessly not to perpetuate the dysfunction and the abuse that filled our childhood.

In my role as a member of Parliament, when speaking to school-aged children, my goal is always to leave them knowing that, regardless of their story, background or setting, they too could one day find themselves in our nation's highest legislative chamber, an honour that is beyond words.

While I have never shared this publicly, I live every day with the emotional and physical scars of the abuse that my brothers and I dealt with back home. My hope is always that if a person finds themselves experiencing some or all of what my brothers have, that they will see that they can overcome. They are not broken, and they are not weak.

I can still remember the smell of burning flesh and the sight of my brother's skin hanging off of his hand. We were lined up to watch. We did not know if we were all getting this, or if it was just my brother Kevin.

The burner had been turned on for some time. It was so hot that it was not even red any longer, it was purple. It was a bad day. Why? I do not know. Was the canned food stacked properly? Were the dishes done? Was the garbage out? It did not matter. Whatever played in her head, we were going to have to pay for it. We had been here before. We knew what was coming.

Just a couple of weeks earlier, I had been on the receiving end of a can of soup that was thrown at me. As I entered the kitchen, as pots and pans clanged violently, the can hit me squarely in the corner of my eye, opening up a gaping gash that required stitches, all because the cupboards were disorganized.

As we stood there, tears slowly ran down our cheeks. We were all terrified. She yanked his little arm. It was barely able to reach the top of the stove. I remember thinking that he even stood on his toes to help her deliver the punishment. She held his arm in place as she placed his tiny hand onto the burner.

I could hear the sound of his flesh burning. Oddly, I do not remember him crying or screaming, maybe because our screams drowned out his. She did not even blink as she flung him to the side and looked directly at my brother and me. I can remember Trent and Kevin thrown into their bedroom, something that was knocked over and the slapping around, over and over, their cries and then silence. Did she finally do it? Did her anger and hatred finally boil over to end with her killing one of us?

I shared that with all my colleagues to tell us that I come at this as a non-partisan issue.

My brother Kevin was a victim of that. He lives on the streets to this day. He was shot twice with a shotgun last summer. He is gripped in our country's opioid addiction. I lost my brother-in-law to an overdose in 2008. Each and every day, I believe that if we, as leaders, share our stories and tell people and show Canadians that it is okay to come forward and share our story, we will break the stigma.

I have been a member of Parliament for seven years, and I have cried way too much in this chamber, but I honestly believe that if we throw away the talking points, speak from the heart and work on tangible things, we can show people who are struggling and suffering silently that they too could maybe, one day, regardless of where they come from, stand in this hallowed place and be a member of Parliament, that they can achieve anything, and that they can overcome the abuses they faced.

I live every day for this. It went so much better in my office when I was rehearsing, but I appreciate everything we are doing. Obviously, opening this up opens up a whole can of worms, but this is not just my story. It is my brothers' story, and it is a story of many Canadians who are struggling to this day, who are struggling right now and may be listening. To those who are struggling, I want them to know that I see them. I hear them. I am fighting for them.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health]

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for Cariboo—Prince George for his moving speech and for his strong advocacy. Also, I congratulate him on his new function as the mental health critic, and I will be glad to work with him.

As the member said, mental health is health, and it is a complex issue. Does he think that a diversified approach is required to answer the needs of those suffering with mental health problems?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Madam Chair, I appreciate the question, and absolutely, but we are not the experts here in the House. We have to work with those who are on the front lines. We have to work with those who have lived experience. We have to work with the national organizations and the true medical experts to really develop something that is tangible and can impact and help Canadians.

I know that far too many Canadians are falling through the cracks; far too many Canadians are struggling with opioid addiction, and what we are doing just is not enough. Applying a band-aid does not help it, so it has to be diversified, because what works for some may not work for others. No two cases are the same.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Madam Chair, I want to thank and congratulate my colleague for his very moving speech. I think that everyone in the House felt my colleague's emotion and commitment, which we certainly share. I thank him.

We have been talking about the opioid crisis and what needs to be done. The member told us that we need a host of measures that depend in particular on the context and the place. I would like him to talk about specific cases.

What can be done to better combat the opioid crisis and its deadly consequences?

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Madam Chair, that is a great question and, in truth, I do not have the answer, but I can speak from my experience with my family.

I talked with my brother last summer, after he had been shot twice with a shotgun, and he said all the right things. He said that he was going to get clean. This is someone I have taken off the street so many times over the last 20 years. I have no idea why he is here. When I sit with other family members who have lost loved ones to overdoses, they do not have the answers either; they just know something needs to be done.

This is why we need to talk about it more openly. This is why we need to share the experiences and engage the professionals to develop a real plan. An app does not do it, and in all honesty, a phone line does not do it, but they are steps and tools in a tool box that can make a difference.

We have to stop the drugs from coming into our country. We have to arm the frontline officers who are tasked with protecting us with the tools to stop those drugs and send those who are importing these drugs to jail. Let us stop that revolving-door policy and make sure we are putting the tools and resources with the frontline officers, the frontline personnel and the frontline organizations that are actually in the fight each and every day. That truly will make a difference.

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

Madam Chair, I thank the member for all his work and everything he has shared this evening. It is so inspiring to me, as someone who was newly elected a year ago, to see another member of Parliament speak from the heart. It really instills a lot of hope for me in the future of our work. I also want to thank the member for his work around PTSD and the three-digit hotline.

I worked in mental health and addictions prior to coming into work as a member of Parliament, and I saw how underfunded it was. I wonder if the member could share if he feels that stigma may play a part in the lack of follow-through that we are currently seeing on the mental health transfers to provinces and territories.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

That is a great question, Madam Chair. We know that just on suicide prevention alone, 11 Canadians each and every day die by suicide. We know a further 275 Canadians attempt suicide. The reality is we know that those statistics are probably even greater because of the stigma associated with suicide. The same goes with overdose and drug abuse. There is such a stigma attached to suicide, mental illness, mental health and drug addiction that many families do not come forward. They are ashamed to bring it forward. They are afraid to speak about it.

We live in a world where time is money and money is everything. Nobody has the time to really look at their neighbour and ask them them how they are doing. We do not want to get involved. We are afraid of what the answer is going to be. We have to do more. We have to care more.

I shared my story today, not to bring sympathy on me or my brother. I share it because my hope is that we break that stigma and that we show families who are dealing with the same issues, or even members of Parliament who are here tonight that it is okay not to be okay, and it is okay to bring these stories forward and show Canadians who do not have the same platform that we can share that, so they can see there is hope. Right now there are so many Canadians who are struggling and families who have no place to turn. They are afraid to come forward. If they see us talking about this, maybe they will come forward and maybe they will seek help as well.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health]

Madam Chair, I really just want to thank the member for Cariboo—Prince George for what he has said tonight. It really does help us all try to reduce the stigma. It makes it easier for others to have the courage to share what they have suffered and to understand the role of trauma and how people like you have turned it into being an absolute passionate crusader for others. Your brother has not been so lucky. Therefore, it is just a gratitude that I want to express on behalf of all Canadians.

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. minister knows that she has to speak through the Chair, but I share the sentiments.

The hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Madam Chair, I appreciate that from the minister.

I am 54 years of age. I had my birthday just the other week. I am ashamed to say that this is the first time I have spoken publicly about this. For many years, I did not even tell my wife and my kids about this. I just knew that each and every day I wanted to live, not to perpetuate the dysfunction. I did not want to talk about it. As I said at the start of my speech, we did not talk about this stuff. I am tired of hiding it. I phoned my brother Trent just before this and said, “This is our story. I hope you're okay with my sharing this.”

It was 2020, so I was 52, and my brother Trent is seven years younger than me. We never talked about this, but there was something that was a catalyst to this and members will have to wait for the book to come out to read what the catalyst was. We sat in a White Spot in British Columbia, and we both started shaking and we both started crying. I was 52. He was around 47. I have a stepbrother by the name of Elvis. He messaged me last week. He is 54, the same age as me. He shared something with me. We have never talked about this. I thought I was the only one. He messaged me and he said it has been eating him up all these years and he has never talked about it. That is what we need to break. Even as brothers, we never talked about this stuff. As families, we never talked about this. We are afraid to talk about it.

The first step in doing anything is being open and honest, and it is dialogue. That is the only way we are going to right the ship and do well for Canadians: being open and honest and having that open and honest conversation. We do not need the partisan politics. We all agree that the ship is broken right now and we need to do whatever we can to help put it back afloat.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Madam Chair, I would like to begin with an aside because I was deeply touched by what my colleague said. If anyone in the House is keenly aware of mental health and illness issues, it is me.

My colleague talked about stigmatization. Michel Foucault's monumental work, A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, made it clear that mental illness had to earn its legitimacy. In other words, mental illness had to be construed as a medical condition. Nowadays, we say “mental health” because we want to avoid the term “mental illness”, but mental illness is an illness like any other. Unfortunately, people with mental illness were locked up, excluded, exploited, put in circuses, put in cages of put on the Ship of Fools. They were dispersed all over the place, set adrift. Foucault's account of the history of madness and how those afflicted were treated paints a dismal picture of human beings.

I rise today to point out that it is not our concerns about mental health and mental illness that divide us. It seems to me that, if we really look at this properly, we would see that this is not the right legislature for taking effective action in this area.

As I said earlier in the preamble to my question, I sometimes get the impression from the minister that we have to reinvent the wheel. Of course, this matter is of particular concern right now, especially because of the postpandemic situation. Mental health has always been the poor cousin of physical health, and there are challenges to be met. Moreover, mental health is one of the weak links in our health care systems, and this became abundantly clear as the pandemic crisis played out. However, none of this justifies the federal government's interfering in something that is none of its concern.

I want the well-being of anyone struggling with illness or mental health problems to be a priority. No one wants that more than I do. Ottawa has to be careful, however, because it is not doing any good or making things better when it meddles in action plans that are already in place. I do not know if the minister is familiar with the 2022-26 interdepartmental mental health plan that was recently adopted by Quebec.

At one point, I had a glimmer of hope. She talked about bilateral child care agreements. I thought that perhaps the minister would be willing to look at what Quebec is doing. Then she would see that the problem in Quebec is not the policies, the goals or the organizational structures, but the money. It is the financial resources that are lacking. There is a lack of resources to hire competent employees and to support certain frontline workers who care for people. I am thinking about employees in community organizations, to name just one sector. I will return to this later.

That was just an aside, and I will now go back to my speech. That said, there are issues there, and I sometimes get the impression that my colleagues are in the wrong legislature. The responsibilities were divided in 1867. It is clear that the federal government currently takes in much more money for its responsibilities than it offers in services. It seems to want to give in to a temptation that has been denounced by every premier who has served the people of Quebec, who form a nation.

That is why we often refer to Quebec's strategies as national strategies. It is not to insult Canada, which is officially recognized as a country. It is just that Quebec is a nation by virtue of its National Assembly, which put strategies in place. Do members know when the first national mental health strategy was implemented? It was in 1980, and it was the first national strategy in the world.

The people of the Quebec nation, through their National Assembly, have been trying to meet mental health needs since 1980. Over time, Quebec has developed its expertise and various national strategies and action plans with the help of many stakeholders, but what it is currently missing is financial resources. When we talk about the interdepartmental plan, that includes a large number of departments. With regard to the consultation that took place in the development of the most recent plan, or the new strategy, we spoke to community groups, researchers, stakeholders, and all segments of the population, including youth, adults, seniors, minority groups and indigenous peoples. We developed that plan in conjunction with many departments and many members of Quebec's interdepartmental working group on homelessness and mental health, including the director of criminal and penal prosecutions, which is important when it comes to Bill C‑5. When we say that we are not going to penalize or incarcerate people because they have addictions, then we need to make sure that part of our informed and comprehensive strategy on mental health involves making sure those individuals do not go to prison, because we know that addictions are often related to mental health. We need to help these people.

Other contributors included the ministry of education, the ministry of advanced education, the ministry of immigration, francization and integration, the ministry of culture and communications; the ministry of families, the ministry of justice, the ministry of public safety, the ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food, the ministry of municipal affairs and housing, the ministry of finance, the ministry of transport, the youth secretariat, the indigenous affairs secretariat, the ministry of labour, employment and social solidarity, the Office des personnes handicapées du Québec, the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec, the status of women secretariat, Quebec's treasury board secretariat and the Société d'habitation du Québec.

In Quebec, for the people of Quebec, for our nation, which speaks through its National Assembly, there are at least 10 departments involved in this action plan. We see mental health as an interdisciplinary challenge. Now along comes this government, no doubt well intentioned, with a mandate letter for a minister who wants to help the Quebec nation, the people of Quebec and all the stakeholders I talked about implement this action plan. I hope we will not have to wait long for the money to come through. We have been waiting for health transfers for too long. In my opinion, if the federal government had invested its fair share in health care over the past 30 years, then all of Quebec's existing action plans would probably have strengthened the weak link that was exposed during the pandemic. That is the issue. Our mental health initiatives have to complement one another.

That is why I am asking the minister to work in concert with Quebec rather than exploit mental health just to exert her spending power—

[The Assistant Deputy Chair, Liberal, Alexandra Mendes]

Questions and comments.

The hon. member for Joliette.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

Madam Chair, I would like to congratulate my colleague for his very interesting speech. We obviously have the same values.

I would like to remind him that the French author Michel Folco wrote a novel about a sad character in a book called Même le mal se fait bien, or even bad things can turn out well.

A question comes to my mind when I hear my colleague's comments and when I look at everything that is being done in Ottawa. It could apply to passports or to any issue. Ottawa wants to meddle in health care without adequately funding the provinces and without respecting constitutional jurisdictions.

Does my colleague agree with me that, in Ottawa, even good intentions can turn out badly?

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Madam Chair, my colleague from Joliette has a great sense of humour.

As I said at the outset, just because someone wants to do good does not mean they are doing good, especially if they are infringing on someone else's autonomy. Usually, this applies to an individual, but it can also apply to a national government that has already thought things through and developed action plans to improve its performance and its mental health care in collaboration with community groups.

I want to acknowledge community groups since this is autonomous community action week. These groups are underfunded, but they are propping up the front lines. If we want to reinvigorate these essential mental health resources, then we need to offer these people decent wages and not let them burn out because of the pandemic, which exacerbated mental health needs. I commend the people working on the front lines in community action, because fixing this issue will certainly take concrete action at every level. In my opinion, these people are keeping the system going.

[Todd Doherty, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Madam Chair, I wonder if our hon. colleague could tell us exactly what Quebec's provincial mental health plan is.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Madam Chair, at least 10 departments helped develop this plan, which was divided into seven pillars. In fact, the Government of Quebec is investing $1 billion in this plan.

The first pillar is promoting mental health and preventing mental illness. The second pillar is prevention and crisis intervention services. The third is partnerships with community organizations. The fourth pillar focuses on actions aimed at young people, their families, their loved ones and their inner circle. The fifth pillar is improving access to mental health care and services. The sixth pillar is prevention and alternatives to hospitalization in psychiatric care, and the seventh is consultation and improving practices.

I think the federal government could contribute to research.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health]

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his speech.

I am working with mental health organizations in Quebec and I, too, am willing to acknowledge Quebec's leadership in this area. That is why it was recognized in the federal-provincial bilateral agreement and the action plan my colleague was talking about.

A total of $11 million was announced in the 2017-18 economic and fiscal update, and that amount was increased to $20 million in 2018-19 for the subsequent years in order to support the implementation of this action plan.

I would like to know whether my colleague agrees that discussions between the provinces and the federal government are important in order to properly address the crisis and mental health needs.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Madam Chair, obviously that is important, but the money needs to be there. I am not saying that we do not need to talk about or collaborate on mental health. On the contrary, I am saying that we need to do so within the limits of our responsibilities and jurisdictions. We need to take a complementary approach.

Quebec already has national standards, by the way, because it is a nation. We do not need more layers of bureaucracy. What we need is money at the ground level to take care of people.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Madam Chair, as we are talking about this issue, it is very important that we focus on the fact that stigma is blocking so many people from getting the necessary help they need. Anyone who has done any work on trauma and the impacts it has not only on a person's emotions but also on a person's body would know that those two things must be integrated, and not see what is happening within somebody's mental state as separate from their physical state as they are together and the same.

Can the member talk about ways that all of us in this place can start to fight stigma in a meaningful way collaboratively so that we can see that change across this whole country?

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Madam Chair, I agree with the idea that we must take a holistic approach to mental health. In some cases, it is the chicken or the egg conundrum. Someone's mental health will deteriorate because of a physical problem and vice versa. We must therefore look at the person as a whole. I do think that both legislatures must take a complementary approach.

In order to give more help to people, to strengthen and reinforce the weak links in the health care systems from coast to coast to coast, including in Quebec, the federal government must give us the necessary financial resources and ensure that we have substantial, and above all recurring, health transfers. Even the Canadian Mental Health Association says that the problem is that the government makes one-time investments. It takes stability and predictability to rebuild the system and make action plans that will actually be effective in helping our people.