Finance committee  I'm not recommending the commission. The Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, co-chaired by Senators Kirby and Keon, did. They worked two and a half years to develop the model and the structure. The development of it could go ahead very quickly, either through Parliament with a bill or through the Privy Council Office.

Finance committee  The first step is to establish a mental health commission: put $17 million into it; put another $25 million towards research; put a proper board in place that would manage it in a way that stakeholders want to see it managed. The mandate of that commission will be, among other things, to start work on a national strategy on mental illness.

Finance committee  Absolutely, yes.

Finance committee  Cutbacks to anything don't hurt people with mental illnesses, because there is no funding for them anyway. It's like wait times or wait lines. We don't have any wait lines, because there is nothing to wait for. We're at the bottom of the barrel, Judy. There is nothing the government can do to cut back that will really impact us in a significant way.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm here today representing the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health. Two of my colleagues, Dr. John Service, our past chair, and Connie McKnight, our current co-chair, are only available for questions. The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health has filed a brief that we hope is understandable, readable, and that sets out our targets without too much interspersion.