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Context: House Hansard - 114 - Oct/20/22

Oct/20/22 6:21:16 p.m.
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moved That this committee take note of mental health. She said: Madam Chair, I would first like to acknowledge that I am on the unceded and traditional territory of the Kanyen'kehà:ka who have been the stewards of these lands and waters since time immemorial. I believe it is important that parliamentarians be able to demonstrate to Canadians that we share their concerns and are listening to those with lived experience of this issue, the experts and the frontline workers. We will implement evidence-based practices to respond the the mental health parallel pandemic. The past few years have been difficult for several reasons. Isolation, financial and employment uncertainty, and disruptions to daily life have left many people across Canada struggling to cope with stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness, and young people are expressing their serious concern about climate change. It is clear that COVID-19 has pushed an already stressed health care system to its limits, and we know that it can be a challenge for Canadians to know where to look for help, find help, find the right help and access that help right away. Sadly, during this time, when so many of us needed support, support was all too often out of reach. Caring for those struggling with their mental health and substance use has not been consistently available across Canada, and when it was available, Canadians often faced long waiting lists. This is not a new problem, but like so many gaps in our health and social systems, it was amplified by the pandemic. Those who were underserved by our health and mental health systems before the pandemic are suffering even more now. More than half of all Canadians feel that their mental health has worsened since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 70 years ago, Canadian war veteran Dr. Brock Chisholm, the first director general of the World Health Organization, stated, “without mental health there can be no true physical health.” Mental health must be treated as a full and equal part of our universal health care system. Canadians should be able to expect the most appropriate care in the most appropriate place by the most appropriate provider at the most appropriate time. We are working with the Standards Council of Canada, as well as our provincial and territorial partners, to develop national standards for evidence-based mental health and addiction services in the priority areas identified with our provincial and territorial colleagues. The work is being supported by $45 million over two years, and we are encouraged by the incredible early progress on national standards for integrated youth services, the wraparound care now being adopted by all jurisdictions. Since 2015, we have made historic investments, including the $5 billion to provinces and territories to increase the availability of mental health care, $598 million from the distinctions-based mental health and wellness strategy for indigenous peoples, $140 million to support veterans and $270 million for the Wellness Together portal. Through the $5 billion in provincial and territorial bilateral agreements, we are now providing $600 million additional annual funding until 2027 to expand access to community-based mental health and addiction services for children and youth and integrated services for people with complex needs, and to expand proven models of community mental health care and culturally appropriate interventions linked to primary health services. We also remain fully committed to investing another $4.5 billion through the Canada mental health transfer. Over the past year, we have heard clearly from partners and the community that the new transfer needs to be based upon a comprehensive, evidence-based plan, including the timely sharing of health data to ensure transparency and accountability to all Canadians. Last Monday, I met with my provincial and territorial mental health and addictions counterparts to share wise practices. Next month, the Minister of Health and I will meet with all provincial and territorial health ministers in Vancouver to chart our way forward, focusing particularly on health human resources, including the expansion of the concept of the mental health workforce. Tonight I would like to congratulate and thank my colleague from Prince George being appointed critic for mental health and for his hard work on suicide prevention and the 988 three-digit helpline. We also know that it is essential for Canadians to have timely access to suicide prevention. They need to know they are not alone. We welcome the CRTC's decision to approve the new 988 three-digit suicide prevention line, and are working to ensure it has the capacity for a successful launch next fall, together with the national action plan on suicide prevention, which will update the existing framework. We have partnered with CAMH to oversee the implementation of the crisis line, and we are investing $21 million over five years through CAMH to implement and sustain a fully operational pan-Canadian suicide prevention service. We are also working closely with American counterparts to learn from their four-year implementation process for the similar service they launched earlier this year. Tonight it is imperative that we all communicate that, if people are struggling with thoughts of suicide right now, or know someone who is, help is available at 1-833-456-4566. While the pandemic exacerbated the gaps in mental health supports available to Canadians, it also accelerated the use of virtual care options to help expand the availability and flexibility of those services. In April 2020, we launched Wellness Together Canada. Its online portal has served as an invaluable connection for many Canadians, allowing them to get the help they need even when they could not leave their homes, and it can be used as a stepping stone to receive advice on where to find more specialized care. The companion app, PocketWell, also ensures that Canadians have access to the mental health and substance abuse services they need, no matter where they live, and that they are able to access resources 24-7. As of October 17, nearly three million individuals across Canada have accessed the portal in over eight million web sessions, and the app has been downloaded over 30,000 times. A total of $130 million was invested in the Wellness Together Canada portal between April 2020 and April 2022. Budget 2022 has provided a further $140 million over two years, so it can continue to provide Canadians with tools and services to support them. The feedback from the users of the portal has been very positive. Although COVID has resulted in more people struggling with mental health, it seems to also have resulted in us all becoming a bit more open to talk about our own mental health. When more people are comfortable talking about mental health, it helps to reduce the stigma that is still a tremendous barrier to seeking care, but the care must be there when they need it. We must design wraparound supports from the bottom up, listening to those with lived and living experience, together with the people who are in their communities who are doing such great work. We know there is much more to do. I look forward to participating in this timely and important debate. I also look forward to hearing what my hon. colleagues believe we can do to better support Canadians' mental health.

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Mr. Todd Doherty (Cariboo—Prince George, CPC)

Oct/20/22 6:30:17 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank our hon. colleague for calling for this debate tonight. As my colleagues know, mental health and suicide prevention are passions of mine, and I think, as the minister said, there is so much more we can do. A concrete step we could do immediately as as a Parliament would be to set up a mental health parliamentary committee with members from all sides so we can study and deal with the mental health issues of Canadians at committee, as we do with many other committees. I want to know if our minister will commit to setting that up or working with us to set that up as quickly as possible.

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett

Oct/20/22 6:31:22 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to assure the member that in my first years in Parliament, we set up a separate subcommittee of the HRDC committee on disability issues. I chaired that committee for five years. It was a small committee that did exceptionally good work, including on mental health and the disability tax credit. I would be pleased to entertain that idea. Obviously we have to work with our whips and House leaders to man it and get supports and services from the House of Commons, but there is certainly a lot to discuss. As a pledge, I would be very happy to meet with the all-party mental health caucus as soon as possible.

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Mr. Luc Thériault (Montcalm, BQ)

Oct/20/22 6:32:17 p.m.
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Madam Chair, listening to the minister gives one the impression that the federal government is reinventing the wheel and starting from scratch in Quebec. No one is against virtue. On November 23, 2023, the CRTC is going to launch the 988 hotline. However, Quebec organizations are concerned because Quebec already has its own lines, 1-866-APPELLE and 1-855-CRAQUER. The organizations therefore want to be assured that their resources will be able to continue to act and that their equipment will be updated somewhere along the way so as to be able to connect to this new service. Can the minister assure these organizations that are concerned that a lack of coordination will prevent them from being able continue to offer their services in Quebec?

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett

Oct/20/22 6:33:43 p.m.
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Absolutely, Madam Chair. Coordination, communication and collaboration with all of the provinces and territories is a priority. I think that the provinces will have the capacity to deliver therapeutic mental health services. Planning is very important. Over the next year, we need to coordinate, just as the member said.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Oct/20/22 6:34:47 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am really glad we are here to talk about the mental health emergency that is taking place. On October 5, I asked the Speaker if we could have an emergency debate and I was not granted permission to do that. I am grateful that all parties have come together to have this important conversation. I am going to read a quote from Ellen Cohen and Kim Hollihan from the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, CAMIMH. They state: Mental health is an integral part of health, and Canada cannot pride itself on a universal healthcare system that does not include universal mental healthcare. The development of national standards for mental health and substance use services cannot delay the introduction of the Canada Mental Health Transfer. Instead, these standards must go hand in hand with the creation of the Canada Mental Health Transfer, rather than the sequential approach that the government is currently taking. Since 65 national health organizations sent an open letter to the minister saying that the time is now for the government to fulfill its campaign promise, will the minister finally listen and deliver the help that Canadians desperately need and deliver on the transfer?

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett

Oct/20/22 6:35:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for his amazing work on this. One of the reasons we wanted to have this debate tonight is that his party's request did not meet the criteria for an emergency debate and opposition days can do that. We decided that we would make sure this debate took place. I thank the member for his initiative and all the hard work.

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett

Oct/20/22 6:36:55 p.m.
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I met with the CAMIMH members the morning of the gala, when our colleague, the member for Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, received an award, and I walked them through what we needed to do. I think a lot of them understand that we need to put in place the kind of transparency and accountability for Canadians that we see in the child care arrangements. This is something we will all be able to work on together, but it will not stop us from delivering the kinds of programs we are doing on substance use and mental health innovation, as well as the programs within the bilateral agreements, with the $600 million a year that is ongoing. We will work as quickly as we can to put in place the principles for that transfer and then negotiate with the provinces and territories to ensure that data comes back and that there is transparency and accountability for all Canadians.

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Mr. Lloyd Longfield (Guelph, Lib.)

Oct/20/22 6:38:02 p.m.
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Madam Chair, part of the minister's last answer was where I wanted to go with my question. It is on data and the importance of the provinces and territories sharing data, not only for the federal government and for our use to understand what is going on in Canada, but for local communities to understand how their data relates to that of similar communities and the best practices that can be transferred, including for the opioid crisis and peer support workers. I know $2.9 million is coming into Guelph for five peer support projects. They are community-driven projects for mental health. Could the minister comment on how data can include mental health but also opioids and things related to peer support systems?

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett

Oct/20/22 6:38:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for Guelph for all of his advocacy and for hosting us in Guelph, where we learned a lot about the great things happening on the ground there not only at the university but throughout his community. We cannot pretend that we can go forward without being able to fund what works and stop funding what does not work, or without understanding the areas of greater need and being able to put additional resources there. We can only do that with data. Last week, I was pleased that the OECD thanked me for my intervention on data at the world mental health conference. Even with the opioid crisis, at the moment, the Public Health Agency of Canada has placed federal public servants in each of the provinces and territories just so we can get data on the opioid crisis. With the pandemic, the provinces have been struggling, and we cannot do this without the appropriate data. As we have seen with COVID, we now have better data on immunizations, diseases, emergency visits and ICUs. I hope that will transfer into a real ability, as I am meeting with the health ministers next month, for us all to understand that Canadians deserve to know what is working.

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Mr. Todd Doherty (Cariboo—Prince George, CPC)

Oct/20/22 6:40:40 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I am honoured to take part in this evening's debate. As those in this chamber know, I have been a huge proponent of raising mental health issues and suicide prevention issues since the first day I was elected. I know we have made huge strides as a society when it comes to mental health, but we have so much further to go. There was a time not so long ago when people were embarrassed to talk about their struggles. Feeling sad, hurt or upset was something to be ashamed of. Growing up, we were taught to internalize our feelings. We were taught that we did not air our dirty laundry in public. We were taught that any showing of weakness was a failure of character. It was always just better to keep it inside. I want to say that this was just a sign of the times, but I think it goes much deeper than that. I believe we felt this way because we were scared. We did not understand the full impact of depression. We did not understand the impact that mental health has on physical health. We did not understand how many people actually struggle with mental health issues. Over my time as a member of Parliament and in the work I did previously, I have heard from first responders, firefighters, police, paramedics, nurses, soldiers and everyday Canadians that even though we can now talk openly about these issues, there is still a stigma attached to them. No one actually owns up to it, but it is still there. Even with as far as we have come, those feelings of weakness of character still persist. Education has been key, and recent statistics show that mental illness will directly affect one-third of, or 9.1 million, Canadians over the course of their lives. Prior to the pandemic, in any given year, one in five Canadians experienced a mental health issue. While statistics are not yet available postpandemic, we know that the number of Canadians who have experienced mental health issues will be more than one-third. The effect COVID restrictions have had on mental health may never fully be known, but they will last generations. Being locked up and confined to our homes is not natural. By nature, we are social beings. We need that personal interaction. Over the course of the last few years, we have witnessed a change in how we deal with mental illness. Bell Let's Talk Day is just one example. We have tried to talk more about depression and mental health. We have talked more openly about suicide. We have talked more openly about post-traumatic stress disorder. We see more programs, more apps and more supports being offered, and while this is good, it is not good enough. We need to work together with the provinces to find a way to put mental health on par with physical health. We need to work together to find more support services for those who are suffering from severe and persistent mental health issues. I often say there is no health without mental health. As a matter of fact, the minister just mentioned that same thing. We need government and business to work together to effect this change. In all of the recent studies done, we see that poor mental health costs Canada $50 billion a year in lost productivity. Mental health problems account for approximately 30% of the short- and long-term workplace disability claims. This is an astronomical sum to me. I cannot help but believe there has to be a better way. My grandma used to say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This old adage would seem to apply here. If we can recognize the symptoms and triggers, we can do a great deal of preventative work. For every dollar spent on mental health, four dollars to $10 is returned to the economy. Improving access to treatments for depression could boost our economy by $32 billion a year. This is why New Zealand tabled its “Wellbeing Budget” in 2019, a groundbreaking departure from the norm. This budget provided $455 million for new frontline mental health services, and every aspect of government policy is viewed through a mental health lens. Suicide prevention received a $40-million boost. The government worked to provide $320 million to address family and sexual violence to improve the lives and mental health of children. I tell people back home that I am the luckiest person alive. Being a member of Parliament feels more like a calling than it does a job. To stand here in this chamber and have the ability to effect change is truly an honour. It is truly humbling. I have travelled the world representing our community and our country. I have seen and experienced things that most people will only ever read about, and now I am a three-term member of Parliament representing one of the largest ridings in the country. Yesterday was my seven-year anniversary, as a matter of fact, of being a member of Parliament. When I am asked how I got into politics, my answer is always the same: I never intended to be a politician. I fell ass-backwards into a position that I now feel I was born to be in, that I feel was maybe God's plan for me. What I do know is that I live every day working tirelessly not to perpetuate the dysfunction and the abuse that filled our childhood. In my role as a member of Parliament, when speaking to school-aged children, my goal is always to leave them knowing that, regardless of their story, background or setting, they too could one day find themselves in our nation's highest legislative chamber, an honour that is beyond words. While I have never shared this publicly, I live every day with the emotional and physical scars of the abuse that my brothers and I dealt with back home. My hope is always that if a person finds themselves experiencing some or all of what my brothers have, that they will see that they can overcome. They are not broken, and they are not weak. I can still remember the smell of burning flesh and the sight of my brother's skin hanging off of his hand. We were lined up to watch. We did not know if we were all getting this, or if it was just my brother Kevin. The burner had been turned on for some time. It was so hot that it was not even red any longer, it was purple. It was a bad day. Why? I do not know. Was the canned food stacked properly? Were the dishes done? Was the garbage out? It did not matter. Whatever played in her head, we were going to have to pay for it. We had been here before. We knew what was coming. Just a couple of weeks earlier, I had been on the receiving end of a can of soup that was thrown at me. As I entered the kitchen, as pots and pans clanged violently, the can hit me squarely in the corner of my eye, opening up a gaping gash that required stitches, all because the cupboards were disorganized. As we stood there, tears slowly ran down our cheeks. We were all terrified. She yanked his little arm. It was barely able to reach the top of the stove. I remember thinking that he even stood on his toes to help her deliver the punishment. She held his arm in place as she placed his tiny hand onto the burner. I could hear the sound of his flesh burning. Oddly, I do not remember him crying or screaming, maybe because our screams drowned out his. She did not even blink as she flung him to the side and looked directly at my brother and me. I can remember Trent and Kevin thrown into their bedroom, something that was knocked over and the slapping around, over and over, their cries and then silence. Did she finally do it? Did her anger and hatred finally boil over to end with her killing one of us? I shared that with all my colleagues to tell us that I come at this as a non-partisan issue. My brother Kevin was a victim of that. He lives on the streets to this day. He was shot twice with a shotgun last summer. He is gripped in our country's opioid addiction. I lost my brother-in-law to an overdose in 2008. Each and every day, I believe that if we, as leaders, share our stories and tell people and show Canadians that it is okay to come forward and share our story, we will break the stigma. I have been a member of Parliament for seven years, and I have cried way too much in this chamber, but I honestly believe that if we throw away the talking points, speak from the heart and work on tangible things, we can show people who are struggling and suffering silently that they too could maybe, one day, regardless of where they come from, stand in this hallowed place and be a member of Parliament, that they can achieve anything, and that they can overcome the abuses they faced. I live every day for this. It went so much better in my office when I was rehearsing, but I appreciate everything we are doing. Obviously, opening this up opens up a whole can of worms, but this is not just my story. It is my brothers' story, and it is a story of many Canadians who are struggling to this day, who are struggling right now and may be listening. To those who are struggling, I want them to know that I see them. I hear them. I am fighting for them.

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Mrs. Élisabeth Brière (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)

Oct/20/22 6:50:58 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for Cariboo—Prince George for his moving speech and for his strong advocacy. Also, I congratulate him on his new function as the mental health critic, and I will be glad to work with him. As the member said, mental health is health, and it is a complex issue. Does he think that a diversified approach is required to answer the needs of those suffering with mental health problems?

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Mr. Todd Doherty

Oct/20/22 6:51:33 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I appreciate the question, and absolutely, but we are not the experts here in the House. We have to work with those who are on the front lines. We have to work with those who have lived experience. We have to work with the national organizations and the true medical experts to really develop something that is tangible and can impact and help Canadians. I know that far too many Canadians are falling through the cracks; far too many Canadians are struggling with opioid addiction, and what we are doing just is not enough. Applying a band-aid does not help it, so it has to be diversified, because what works for some may not work for others. No two cases are the same.

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Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Oct/20/22 6:52:29 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank and congratulate my colleague for his very moving speech. I think that everyone in the House felt my colleague's emotion and commitment, which we certainly share. I thank him. We have been talking about the opioid crisis and what needs to be done. The member told us that we need a host of measures that depend in particular on the context and the place. I would like him to talk about specific cases. What can be done to better combat the opioid crisis and its deadly consequences?

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Mr. Todd Doherty

Oct/20/22 6:53:12 p.m.
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Madam Chair, that is a great question and, in truth, I do not have the answer, but I can speak from my experience with my family. I talked with my brother last summer, after he had been shot twice with a shotgun, and he said all the right things. He said that he was going to get clean. This is someone I have taken off the street so many times over the last 20 years. I have no idea why he is here. When I sit with other family members who have lost loved ones to overdoses, they do not have the answers either; they just know something needs to be done. This is why we need to talk about it more openly. This is why we need to share the experiences and engage the professionals to develop a real plan. An app does not do it, and in all honesty, a phone line does not do it, but they are steps and tools in a tool box that can make a difference. We have to stop the drugs from coming into our country. We have to arm the frontline officers who are tasked with protecting us with the tools to stop those drugs and send those who are importing these drugs to jail. Let us stop that revolving-door policy and make sure we are putting the tools and resources with the frontline officers, the frontline personnel and the frontline organizations that are actually in the fight each and every day. That truly will make a difference.

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Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Oct/20/22 6:54:51 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for all his work and everything he has shared this evening. It is so inspiring to me, as someone who was newly elected a year ago, to see another member of Parliament speak from the heart. It really instills a lot of hope for me in the future of our work. I also want to thank the member for his work around PTSD and the three-digit hotline. I worked in mental health and addictions prior to coming into work as a member of Parliament, and I saw how underfunded it was. I wonder if the member could share if he feels that stigma may play a part in the lack of follow-through that we are currently seeing on the mental health transfers to provinces and territories.

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Mr. Todd Doherty

Oct/20/22 6:55:39 p.m.
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That is a great question, Madam Chair. We know that just on suicide prevention alone, 11 Canadians each and every day die by suicide. We know a further 275 Canadians attempt suicide. The reality is we know that those statistics are probably even greater because of the stigma associated with suicide. The same goes with overdose and drug abuse. There is such a stigma attached to suicide, mental illness, mental health and drug addiction that many families do not come forward. They are ashamed to bring it forward. They are afraid to speak about it. We live in a world where time is money and money is everything. Nobody has the time to really look at their neighbour and ask them them how they are doing. We do not want to get involved. We are afraid of what the answer is going to be. We have to do more. We have to care more. I shared my story today, not to bring sympathy on me or my brother. I share it because my hope is that we break that stigma and that we show families who are dealing with the same issues, or even members of Parliament who are here tonight that it is okay not to be okay, and it is okay to bring these stories forward and show Canadians who do not have the same platform that we can share that, so they can see there is hope. Right now there are so many Canadians who are struggling and families who have no place to turn. They are afraid to come forward. If they see us talking about this, maybe they will come forward and maybe they will seek help as well.

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Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)

Oct/20/22 6:57:35 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I really just want to thank the member for Cariboo—Prince George for what he has said tonight. It really does help us all try to reduce the stigma. It makes it easier for others to have the courage to share what they have suffered and to understand the role of trauma and how people like you have turned it into being an absolute passionate crusader for others. Your brother has not been so lucky. Therefore, it is just a gratitude that I want to express on behalf of all Canadians.

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The Assistant Deputy Chair

Oct/20/22 6:58:26 p.m.
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The hon. minister knows that she has to speak through the Chair, but I share the sentiments. The hon. member for Cariboo—Prince George.

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Mr. Todd Doherty

Oct/20/22 6:58:36 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I appreciate that from the minister. I am 54 years of age. I had my birthday just the other week. I am ashamed to say that this is the first time I have spoken publicly about this. For many years, I did not even tell my wife and my kids about this. I just knew that each and every day I wanted to live, not to perpetuate the dysfunction. I did not want to talk about it. As I said at the start of my speech, we did not talk about this stuff. I am tired of hiding it. I phoned my brother Trent just before this and said, “This is our story. I hope you're okay with my sharing this.” It was 2020, so I was 52, and my brother Trent is seven years younger than me. We never talked about this, but there was something that was a catalyst to this and members will have to wait for the book to come out to read what the catalyst was. We sat in a White Spot in British Columbia, and we both started shaking and we both started crying. I was 52. He was around 47. I have a stepbrother by the name of Elvis. He messaged me last week. He is 54, the same age as me. He shared something with me. We have never talked about this. I thought I was the only one. He messaged me and he said it has been eating him up all these years and he has never talked about it. That is what we need to break. Even as brothers, we never talked about this stuff. As families, we never talked about this. We are afraid to talk about it. The first step in doing anything is being open and honest, and it is dialogue. That is the only way we are going to right the ship and do well for Canadians: being open and honest and having that open and honest conversation. We do not need the partisan politics. We all agree that the ship is broken right now and we need to do whatever we can to help put it back afloat.

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