Mr. Speaker, on January 10, Kingston City Council unanimously passed a motion that declared a mental health and addictions crisis in our city. City services are stretched beyond what they can and are mandated to provide to those who are experiencing homelessness, mental health and addiction challenges.
The city's motion specifically requested assistance from the provincial Ontario government to invest in additional health care resources, including treatment and rehabilitation beds in Kingston, to support those in need. It further goes on to request the province to lead an emergency working group of frontline health care and social workers to develop long-term solutions.
Our federal government is willing and ready to help provinces and territories deal with the mental health and addictions crises that are happening throughout the country. That is why we established a ministry of mental health and invested, through budget 2022, $100 million over three years to support harm reduction, treatment and prevention at the community level.
I fully support this declaration, and we need all levels of government to work collaboratively together to tackle the mental health and addictions crisis happening throughout our country.