Mr. Speaker, today is World Mental Health Day, which is an opportunity to shine a light on crucial yet often overlooked aspects of our lives, one being mental health at work. This year's theme reminds us that our workplaces must be safe with respect to our collective and individual mental and psychological well-being.
Our work environments are ever-evolving and more dynamic than ever before. As leaders, employers and managers, we must all prioritize mental health just as we do physical health. Mental well-being is not a luxury; it is essential for productivity, creativity and overall workplace harmony. When employees feel supported, valued and understood, they thrive.
Our government has collaborated with various Canadian mental health agencies to create policies and invest in programs that prevent mental health risks, promote well-being and build supportive workplaces where mental health is prioritized. So, on this World Mental Health Day, I would like to thank mental health workers of all kinds right across Canada.
I was asked to come to the adjournment debate tonight to talk about mental health and addictions policy. However, those sorts of guardrails get a little stretched occasionally, but if the member of Parliament for Durham would like to talk to the Minister of Justice or the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice, then he needs to indicate that. I came tonight to talk about mental health policy and measures that we have undertaken to address the overdose crisis.
It is also important to recognize that, when in government, Canadians of all walks of life, whether they are left, or as my colleague might label them “woke”, centrists or more far on the right end of the spectrum, even if they are sometimes considered extreme, if they are academics, if they are workplace experts or if they just have ideas, governments need to be open to good ideas, regardless of who those ideas are coming from. We should invite good ideas. This place should be a contest of ideas in fact, and we should not be afraid to criticize those ideas and should not be close-minded about hearing them either.
It seems as though in this place it is similar to a debate that happened a couple of years ago when an organization suggested that the federal government consider taxing the equity of personal primary residences. It is a notion that our government soundly rejected and did not want to do. Canadians do not want their primary residence home equity to be taxed. However, since somebody brought it up at a meeting, the Conservatives ran with it and sent out a whole bunch of mail that said, “Look, these Liberals are trying to tax home equity”, which was not true. However, suggestions that my colleague has made with respect to policy recommendations made by a third party are also not true. I am also certain that was a large document with multiple recommendations and suggestions. As a government, we will remain open-minded to the good suggestions from academics, civil service organizations, groups of people and experts, because that is important to do as a government.
I will turn back to the issue of all of the efforts we have undertaken to address the overdose crisis, which include efforts right across the continuum of care to prevent drug use, to reduce harm, and to support people in accessing treatment and recovery services that they need and deserve. We will remain committed to maintaining public safety through all of those enforcement efforts.
There are four aspects of drug policy and overdose crisis response that are all very important. It is like a table, and without any one of those four legs, that table falls down. They are prevention, harm reduction, treatment and enforcement. If any group, party or academic suggests that an effective drug policy can operate without all four of those aspects, then they are wrong.
The Government of Canada has invested almost $200 billion over the last 10 years to support provinces and territories to deliver health services in addition to the $1 billion that we have directly invested to address this drug crisis, and we will continue to be there.