Harold Albrecht

[Business of Supply, October 25th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I noticed at the beginning of my colleague's very informed speech he mentioned about getting beyond the rhetoric and that he wanted to dispel the myths.

I have sat through the debate today and many times I have heard misinformation being given by the opposition members of Parliament. I have heard phrases today that we are abolishing the Canadian Wheat Board, that we are ending the Canadian Wheat Board, that the Canadian Wheat Board will be gone, that we are dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board, that we are getting rid of the Canadian Wheat Board, that we are destroying the Canadian Wheat Board.

The truth is that we are not ending, abolishing, dismantling, getting rid of, or destroying the Canadian Wheat Board. Canadians expect us to provide factual information, not to give misleading information to other members of the House, or more importantly, to Canadians who may be observing and reading the proceedings of the House.

I want my colleague to confirm that in fact we are simply giving western grain farmers marketing freedom. Also, would he like to speculate as to why in the world opposition members would be opposed to giving farmers the freedom to market the very products they are producing?

[Points of Order, October 18th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to a couple of the points raised by my colleague across the way regarding the bill.

First, his implication that this should be a government bill takes away from the freedom that private members have to promote legislation. I think he is jumping to conclusions in making that conclusion.

Second, the member will know that there is already a mechanism in place that vets these bills. There is a group, the private members subcommittee of procedure and House affairs, that meets to discern whether bills are votable or not. In fact, there will be a report tabled tomorrow in that regard, particularly in relation to the bill.

Third, it is obvious that the mover of the bill is not present today and at the very least he should be given an opportunity to respond to the issues that were raised by my colleague.

I would ask you, Mr. Speaker, to defer action on this until appropriate submissions are allowed on behalf of the member.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 17th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to my colleague. It was evident that he was very negative about the great measures in the bill.

He forgot to mention the 650,000 new jobs that have been created. He tried to take credit for the $2 billion tax incentive for municipalities. That was $1 billion. We have doubled it and made it permanent.

Most of all, I cannot understand why he would avoid mentioning the tax credit to assist caregivers. He is trying to make it look like we are not compassionate for people who are caregivers. That is clearly a part of Bill C-13. I would like him to comment on that.

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 17th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I am surprised by my colleague's attitude this morning. He is generally a positive guy but he is grumpy today. Maybe he had a bad constituency week.

My colleague is implying that there is no plan. If he would take the time to look, there have been 650,000 new jobs created. There is no better plan for a person who is trying to make ends meet than a good job.

The member also complains that there are no targeted investments. Bill C-13 includes green energy investments. As well, there are targeted investments in communities. The permanent gas tax funding will help municipalities with long-term planning and initiatives.

What the member is really missing are the amazing investments that the bill makes in education and training, forgiving loans for new doctors, helping apprentices in skilled trades and improving federal assistance for students. These are all fantastic initiatives.

Why would the NDP be against helping students and our next generation get the kind of good jobs that they need to support their families?

[Keeping Canada's Economy and Jobs Growing Act, October 6th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I welcome my colleague to the House of Commons.

The member spent the first part of her speech talking about the political party subsidies. By far, a large majority of the people I talk to believe that political parties should raise their funds from those who believe in that political party by doing some fundraising of their own, not by having funds given to them by the taxpayers.

The member went on to imply that this party somehow does not care about youth. I would like to remind her of some of the initiatives for youth that are in the budget.

We are helping apprentices in the skilled trades. I cannot think of anything more important in this day and age than to help our young people who are leaving secondary school to get involved in some type of post-secondary education. The reality is that for a lot of them, university is not a channel they can follow. We are facing skilled trades shortages already.

We are improving federal financial assistance for students. We are making it easier to allocate registered education savings plans. We are forgiving loans for new doctors and nurses in underserved rural and remote areas.

All these initiatives are really important as we move forward not just for youth but especially for youth.

How can my colleague and her party possibly vote against all of the amazing measures, of which I only listed four or five, that will help our youth and help Canada?

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, it is important to recognize that the government can do a lot in those situations. We have invested a lot of resources not just in terms of bricks and mortar but also in terms of personnel to help in that regard.

The primary thing we can do is offer hope and opportunity, especially economic opportunity, to these first nation communities that have often been left out of the loop. We can provide meaningful jobs for them so that the leader of the home, whether it be the husband or wife, can provide for their children.

The other aspect of the aboriginal question that I raised this morning when my colleague from the Liberal Party spoke is to recognize the importance of the spiritual aspect of suicide prevention as well. We talk about the psychological, physiological and biological aspects. However, too often in this chamber we are afraid to address the very real benefit of that spiritual foundation, regardless of what faith that is. For me it is my Christian faith. To allow these people to embrace that part of their culture as well is an important piece of this puzzle of suicide prevention.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I will start with the last question first.

In terms of best practices, that is exactly what the motion today and Bill C-300 speak to, the fact that we do not know what all those best practices are. There are many groups doing excellent work. By having a central repository as well as the coordination of research and statistics we will do a better job of that.

I applaud the work of our government in funding the Mental Health Commission of Canada. In addition, it has provided the aboriginal youth suicide prevention strategy with $75 million in funding over a five-year period I believe it is. There are 150 community-based projects that are being funded.

I must clarify that not all suicides are a result of mental health issues. People working in the field of suicide have underlined this fact. We must not miss this public health aspect and need to address that in our suicide prevention strategy with a desire to move forward on those issues.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon for his insightful remarks. I also extend my thanks to the leader of the Liberal Party for bringing this motion forward today and to the member for Halifax for her work on suicide prevention and for tabling a private member's bill in regard to that.

It is important that we, as a Parliament, are the leaders in doing all that we can to end the silence around this very tragic epidemic. We need to do what we can to reduce the stigma of those families who have been the victims of suicide. On this side of the House, we are committed to doing all that we can.

Last Thursday, I had the honour of tabling in this chamber my private member's bill, which deals with this very issue, Bill C-300.

We have a lot of good work already being done by hundreds of community groups throughout Canada, and most of these, if not all, are volunteer groups. We have the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. It has done amazing work over the years developing its blueprint. I congratulate the association on its efforts. It works with very little encouragement from other levels of government, but it has done amazing work for us.

We have the Ontario Association for Suicide Prevention. In my own area, we have the Waterloo Region Suicide Prevention Council, which has done just amazing work in the Waterloo region. Just recently I had the honour being in my colleague's riding, the Minister of State for Science and Technology , for a golf tournament that was raising funds to raise awareness of suicide prevention issues. I thank them for that good work.

Another agency with which I have had the honour of working over the last two years is called Your Life Counts. This is a group of people who voluntarily do work on the Internet. They provide Internet resources to young people especially who are dealing with suicidal thoughts and struggling with issues in life that are difficult for them to handle, challenges that face all of our youth. They are doing good work in providing that Internet access but they do not end just simply with the Internet access. They then offer personal services to people who contact them.

I will highlight another story, which we have all heard numerous times today, for those who may not have been here earlier. The story is about my colleague, Dave Batters, who tragically ended his life a few years ago. I congratulate his family for the great work they are doing in bringing awareness to this issue. I have had contact with Denise Batters since we started this initiative. She draws our attention to the YouTube video that highlights some ways that we can raise awareness around this issue.

Those groups have worked hard on our behalf and all they are asking for is some federal coordination, some federal leadership, and that is exactly the motivation for my private member's bill.

I will not read the entire bill but I would like to highlight some of the actions that my bill would ask for.

The bill would formally define suicide as a public health issue and a health and safety priority. It would improve public awareness of suicide and its related issues. It would make statistics publicly accessible, promote collaboration and knowledge exchange. I think this is one of the things we have heard many times today. If we could exchange the best practices that are already being implemented across our country, we could do so much more.

The bill would define and share the best practices and get the research that is being done out of the classroom, so to speak, and into the hands of those who are actually doing the work on the ground.

Finally, there would be a responsibility on the part of the government agency to report back regularly to Canadians.

The number of suicides in Canada is a great tragedy. We have heard many personal stories today. We have heard the story of the Richardson family. Many of us will remember the story of the Kajouji family here in Ottawa who lost their daughter. This particular suicide was done at the hands of an Internet predator who used the Internet to actually encourage suicide.

My motion in the fall of 2009 was to encourage our government to implement within the Criminal Code clarity as to the penalties for those who would encourage suicide. We already know that encouraging someone to commit suicide is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. What was not clear is whether that included technologies such as Internet and computer system. That was my motivation for that motion.

It is estimated that there are 10 suicides a day in Canada. If we take that on a monthly basis, that is the equivalent of a large airliner going down every month and every person in that airliner dying. If that were happening, I think there would be a huge call for action. That is exactly what we are hearing today with this motion. That is the motivation for my private member's bill. It is my hope that, through these initiatives and others, we will actually see some action on these issues.

I just want to read the motion for those who may be watching because it is important to get the entire context of what is said here.

That the House agree that suicide is more than a personal tragedy, but is also a serious public health issue and public policy priority; and, further, that the House urge the government to work cooperatively with the provinces, territories, representative organizations from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people, and other stakeholders to establish and fund a National Suicide Prevention Strategy, which among other measures would promote a comprehensive and evidence-driven approach to deal with this terrible loss of life.

At this point I will stop for a moment and offer my heartfelt condolences and sympathies to those who have had to deal with this tragedy. It has been mentioned many times in this chamber today that there is not one person who has not in some way been touched this tragedy, some closer than others, some immediate family members and others close friends and colleagues.

The grief that people experience when they lose a loved one who is close to them can only be described by the people who going through that grief. My family and I have had our own share of grief over these past five months. In fact, it is five months ago today that Betty passed away. I can say that the grief is real but I cannot imagine how much more profound that grief must be for those who are left with the question and the additional emotional burden of wondering what they could have done, what they should have done or why they did not see the signs, all of those questions that I assume must come crashing in on them.

I think part of our overall approach to this issue needs to include, at some point, ways and means in which we can encourage communities with resources as to how they can walk alongside those who have experienced this tragedy.

I indicated earlier today that one of my favourite quotes as it relates to suicide prevention is the quote by Margaret Somerville, the famous ethicist from McGill University. She says:

Hope is the oxygen of the human spirit; without it our spirit dies....

I think that capsulizes what we are looking at here. We are trying to find ways to give hope, hope to people who are dealing with suicidal thoughts, for sure, needs to be our motivation, but also hope for those who are working on the ground and who have been struggling as volunteers without adequate resources, as they struggle with their efforts.

Any of the investments that we make in trying to move this ahead need to keep at the heart of it the hope that we are trying to give to people.

I will conclude with some of the statistics that I think will shock us into action in terms of the number of Canadians each year who are losing their lives to suicide. It is roughly 4,000 a year. Among our aboriginal population, t estimates show that it is five to seven times beyond that, and that is just counting the suicides. It does not counting those who may have tried to commit suicide and their emotional trauma.

At the heart of what we are trying to do here is to extend that hope to people who are dealing with suicidal thoughts and to provide the framework that will actually help those organizations on the ground that are trying to continue the good work they have started.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his very passionate speech. My heart, the hearts of members on this side and I am sure the hearts of every member in this House goes out to him and his family. I know that we have prayed for his son many times and we will continue to do that.

Like my colleague, since I have started talking about the initiative of the private members' bills and so on going back to motion no. 388 which dealt with suicide predators, I have had many people speak to me about suicide and inevitably they would share a personal story about something in their own family that they have dealt with. Just this past Sunday, a gentleman, probably in his mid-70s, talked to me about his son who had ended his life by suicide. He shared some of his pain.

I want to thank my colleague for highlighting the willingness to discuss this openly. As I mentioned, my colleague from the west, Dave Batters, was forthright in sharing his story, and now it is his wife, Denise.

The question I have relates to the pain that my colleague, and many of us, experience and the importance of having some piece in this strategy. How does he feel about the importance of having a clear part in this to deal not only with prevention and intervention, but also with the care for the families and communities that are left to pick up the broken pieces?

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the member for Halifax on her good work on this initiative for the past many months, and indeed, I congratulate her on the award as well.

During this debate we have focused a lot on the need for some national leadership, guidelines, and so on. That is at the heart of what we are all agreeing on today. We acknowledge the great work that many national, provincial and regional organizations are doing on this file. I shared earlier today my experience working with the Waterloo Region Suicide Prevention Council on some of its great initiatives.

For me, it is helpful to know what initiatives are being carried out in ridings in other areas of the country. I would ask my colleague to share one or two anecdotes as evidence of the work that is going on in her area, another confirmation that we simply need to provide some resources and glue to help people work better together.