I actually did a police night out, and I had the ability to see COAST in action. It’s a fantastic program. It changes an outcome when someone is trained for mental health and is able to de-escalate or to decide: “Is this someone who’s just lonely”—because that happens—“or is this someone who’s really in danger of killing themselves or harming themselves? Is this person a danger and a threat to community and society?”

We need to ensure that these programs are fundable, but we can’t just count on them either, because if a police officer shows up and doesn’t have COAST with them, then they’re on their own. We need to ensure that police officers have that same education and the ability to be able to perform their duties safely.

If they feel like they’ve got an “I gotcha”—because they’re winking at each other across the hall—that’s fine. You asked for my opinion.

I just finished telling you in my speech that we are short on police. We don’t have the numbers that we should be able to have in Hamilton as per our population. If the government wants to support police, they should also ensure that we have the ability to have enough police on our streets to keep your niece and nephews safe.

We know that we need more police on our streets. We know that the police have to be trained accordingly. We know that the police have been asking for these things, and yet this government refuses to provide—just like they’re refusing to provide the funding necessary for victim services that the government has mandated them to be able to provide.

The police tell us they want training. They need to make sure that their police force is educated. There are incentives. There are ways to encourage more police to join the field to serve and protect—but making sure that they have the right education to be able to perform their duties so they’re safe, their families have them come home to them at the end of every day, and they’re able to serve and protect our communities.

Report continues in volume B.

Questions?

I want to thank the member from Hamilton Mountain for her remarks.

I have the pleasure of working with a great community police officer in the west end of Ottawa Centre. His name is Darren Joseph. He was a running back in the CFL. He’s a fixture in the community. Members from Hamilton know of him because of who he played for. One of the things he tells me all the time is that good policing work is social work with the possibility of an armed response. The many layers of skills you need to try to reach someone in crisis are far more important. The member talked about those eloquently.

You mentioned that people are asking for more training, so I’m going to give you the opportunity to talk about what kind of training you’ve heard people ask for.

I want to thank the member from Hamilton Mountain for her excellent presentation about the COAST program. It is something that has also been implemented in the London area. It’s a partnership of the CMHA, the London Police Service and the Elgin-Middlesex paramedic services. It’s absolutely brilliant. It was something that was brought forward, as well, during the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs 2023 budget consultations. And yet, this government has chosen not to allocate the funding that has been requested for this program. There’s no dedicated funding for this in the budget. Unfortunately, in the London area, this is a program that is not available at all hours of the day. My question to the member is, why is this government not listening to front-line officers who know the incredible value this program provides to our community?

I want to thank my colleague from Hamilton Mountain for her remarks. I want to note a particular piece the member talked about: her own community in Hamilton and the need for more police officers in that community in Hamilton. I’ve shared with the member before that I’ve got family in Hamilton, some on the Hamilton Mountain—two wonderful nephews. I’ve got a niece in Stoney Creek. Personally, but also professionally, I think it’s important that we stand up for the residents of Hamilton and make sure that the community is as safe as possible.

Some members of this House have, in the past, talked about defunding the police or diverting resources away from police and into other places.

I just want to give the member a chance to clarify her position. Does she think we should be defunding the police or putting more police officers on our streets?

To the member from Hamilton Mountain: You had spoken a little bit about the COAST program in your community. We have something that’s very similar in Waterloo region—just by a different name: the IMPACT program. It does have a very substantial impact in our community. I know that there has been funding to our IMPACT program through the Ministry of Health and through the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

I know that Hamilton’s program, as well, was able to receive funding that they applied for over the last few years. I’d just like to get her thoughts on that program and how she sees it working a little bit better in her community.

I want to thank my colleague the member for Hamilton Mountain. You know your community so well, and you do such amazing work, so I want to congratulate you on being such a fantastic MPP for your constituents.

I know that the time went so quickly for you and that you wanted to talk a lot about Bill 74, the vulnerable persons alert act. So I’m going to just give you a few minutes, if you’d like to say some things that you haven’t said—how you hope that the government will implement this, the background to this, why it’s such an important bill, and why it’s a perfectly fit and corollary to this bill that we’re debating today about keeping communities safe.