Madam Speaker, first and foremost, I want to offer my condolences to my colleague across the way and to his entire family. An incident like this does not go unnoticed. I was a teacher for at least two decades, and I saw situations deteriorate right before my eyes for certain groups of students. Teachers are still only allowed to speak to parents if the student gives consent. It is extremely difficult for teachers to cope with these conditions.
I rise today because this topic is very important to me. I deeply respect my colleague for having the courage to come share this in the House in the hope of improving the situation. This topic is extremely important not only to me, but to all Canadians, I am sure. Regardless of an individual's family situation, no one is sheltered from issues such as drugs, fentanyl, peer pressure and mental health. During my years as a teacher and as a coach, I saw athletes who could have performed very well at the national and international level get off track because of peer pressure, drugs and other substances that can disrupt the life of a young person, the life of a family, the life of everyone.
Bill C-231 is a bill brought forward by my colleague that pertains to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, or YCJA. I have a daughter who is in the throes of adolescence, so I cannot be indifferent to this. I have had occasion to try to keep a closer eye on her. We know that children will have their own experiences. We have little or no control over that, but I am thankful for what life teaches. We have still been able to keep an extremely close eye on the kids, but it is not because of us, their parents. I would like tell my colleague opposite that as parents, we do our best, but we cannot control all the experiences our children have to go through in life.
Bill C-231 proposes some changes to the YCJA in order to facilitate access to addiction treatment programs for young persons struggling with addiction who come into contact with the criminal justice system. In particular, this bill would amend the YCJA to clarify the measures governing addiction treatment programs and to authorize youth justice courts to delay sentencing in some scenarios so that young persons are able to participate in an addiction treatment program.
My colleague talked about treatments in his speech. There are many that can be used to prevent this. There are many treatments available to help with the illness of drug use. However, we can do better. Our government aims to prioritize permanent approaches for keeping young people away from criminal activities. As my colleague also mentioned, drug use comes with bad habits. It is a vicious circle. If people want to use drugs, they have to get drugs. To get drugs, they have to enter a world that is not exactly legal. It is a vicious circle. Our government seeks to prioritize that approach.
The basic principles of this bill promote accountability through measures that offer positive outlooks as well as rehabilitation for social reintegration. It also promotes the use of diversion measures for less severe crimes in order to cut down on the overuse of detention and save court resources for more severe crimes.
Vocational education teachers often deal with delinquency or the rehabilitation of young teenagers who have left the system. When I was a vocational teacher, the first thing I would tell young people was that I was welcoming them to their second chance, their opportunity to succeed in life, and that we would be there to support them.
It is important for adults to listen, but they may not always be the most suitable confidants for young people. If we had a system designed to help these young people overcome their challenges, many lives could be saved.
With the youth justice fund, the federal government provides an annual contribution of nearly $4.5 million to support projects that encourage a more effective youth justice system, respond to emerging youth justice issues, and enable greater citizen and community participation in the youth justice system.
This fund provides funding to “improve the youth justice system's ability to help youth rehabilitate and reintegrate; increase the use of out of court measures that are more effective in addressing some types of less serious offending...[and] increase the use of community-based sentences for less serious offending”.
Additionally, the federal government's youth justice services funding program provides all provinces and territories with an annual financial contribution totalling nearly $185 million for the period from 2021 to 2027 “to assist in the delivery of various programs and services that target youth who come in contact with the criminal justice system”.
Our government has also committed to providing urgent and immediate support in response to the overdose crisis. The federal government has developed measures to address the overdose crisis as part of the Canadian drugs and substances strategy. The government has committed to a public health and safety approach with a number of objectives, including making it easier to access vital services, reducing stigma around substance use and supporting prevention, treatment and recovery efforts.
The federal government has also committed significant funding to the illegal toxic drug and overdose crisis. For example, the federal government has invested over $750 million through the substance use and addiction program for more than 460 innovative community-based pilot projects since 2017, including peer support and capacity-building projects.
More specifically, when it comes to youth public health, the federal government has invested $500 million in the youth mental health fund. We have heard a lot about that from my colleague. These are illnesses that seem harmless, secret illnesses. We do not know what is going on in our kids' heads.
This program finally helps young people in Canada to access the mental health care they need. These investments mainly go toward increasing access to community-based mental health services and improving navigation and referral to mental health services and supports.
The federal government has also invested $20.2 million in the program to prevent youth substance use and associated harms. This program supports 12 community projects in developing a tailored approach to preventing and delaying substance use in youth.
Thanks to these investments, which are grounded in the realities that communities are facing, young people are getting the support, safety and opportunities they deserve when it comes to the prevention and treatment of substance use. In closing, this program made it possible to reach 198,200 young people through over 1,800 online sessions and 1,000 in-person sessions in high schools between April 2018 and March 2025.
In Canada, youth mental and emotional health and well-being is an important health issue that has several implications for the prevention of youth crime and for the youth criminal justice system. In Canada, people with mental illnesses and addictions are overrepresented in the criminal justice system.
Bill C-231 addresses an issue that is a major concern for all of us.