Madam Chair, I certainly am very glad that my colleague asked that question because it is a very important one, and it is one that I did not have enough time to fully flesh out in my speech earlier this evening.
I spoke to Chief Balcaen, the head of the Brandon police, this past week as well. I got caught up on the situation that has caused a lot of the homelessness, which puts a lot of stress on everyone's mental health. I also mentioned the increasing prices of food, heat and energy.
The other area we are struggling with is in our rural areas. Number one, even if there were enough health workers to meet the need, people would have to travel great distances to get that service. There are not enough support workers in, I would say, just about any area of Canada. There are certainly not enough psychologists or mental health workers in other areas.
There has been an increasing number of people who are dealing with homelessness and mental health issues. As I said, in Brandon it has doubled over the last number of years. From the statistics I have seen, I know that is relevant to just about every city in Canada. We certainly do need an increase in the number of health workers in the mental health field.