44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 20, 2022 10:00AM
- 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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- Oct/20/22 8:37:50 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as the founder of the all-parliamentary mental health caucus, we have been advocating, and I am glad to see so many of my colleagues from the class of 2015 participating in this debate. I am so proud to be serving with them. We have been advocating for mental health services since 2015.
The government initially supported this movement with $5 billion. Unfortunately, we have not seen the result, as a result of, in my opinion, the lack of co-operation among the provinces and territories in making sure that the services are designed to deliver the specific need community-based support.
We definitely need to do a lot more work and it has to be in collaboration. It has to address the need of the community through various models that have been proposed over the last seven years that I have been in Parliament.
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- Oct/20/22 9:09:27 p.m.
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Madam Chair, one of the things I was surprised about, and I was approached by a constituent about this, was that counsellors, therapists and psychotherapists have to charge GST and taxes on their services, whereas other mental health professionals do not. This is actually a classification from CRA. It is a very simple change the government can make.
It is a drop in the bucket of what is necessary, but it would help those who are struggling to pay for some of these services. Until they are made far more available and without the idea of having to pay for them, which is also my goal, it is something that the government could do very quickly.
I have a private member's bill on that. It is Bill C-218. Would the member be open to supporting that bill?
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- Oct/20/22 9:10:16 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we need to do all we can to try to make these services more accessible for all Canadians. I will certainly look at the bill and consider it. The intent of the bill, I support, but I have not seen the language. We need to expand the number of people who can provide this help and be covered by our health system.
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- Oct/20/22 9:40:29 p.m.
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Madam Chair, absolutely. We need to ensure that rural has equitable and full access to these services. That is part of the reason I was so excited.
I represent about 64 self-governing municipalities in rural Alberta. The majority of them passed motions at their village councils, saying that a 988, although in many cases in their debate and whatnot it was said that it would not be a solution, was such an important tool to ensure that there was a consolidation of services. It made sure that especially in rural areas, where they could be an hour or two from a hospital or three or four hours from a police call, those resources are accessible by simply pressing three buttons on a phone. Among many other things, that was an important part.
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- Oct/20/22 10:20:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, support services are absolutely critical. We need early diagnosis for young children, to catch the illness and the challenges that they are faced with, and to support them and their families all the way through.
In our communities we need to make sure we do not discriminate. The fact is that people cannot access mental health supports. The lucky ones who have extended health care can access it. However, a lot of people do not have extended health care. Access to mental health care is about the ability to pay in that regard, because it is so expensive. We need to make sure people can access services.
I would be remiss if I did not raise this issue as well. I live in a community where there are a lot of people who speak different languages. Having access to support services in their language is absolutely critical. The language barrier is real as well, and we need to break down those barriers. Funding needs to be in place to enhance access to supports.
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