That’s a good question.

This government has continued to support various programs that assist police officers when they are called to a situation where some kind of mental health issue might be identified.

This particular law opens up the doors of the police colleges to people who might not necessarily have a college diploma or a university diploma—or they might have a college diploma or a university diploma, and that’s a good thing too.

But it’s really the programs offered by this government which assist those types of calls which the member was referring to. Those calls are identified through the police call centres, where they usually identify a person who might be in mental health distress, and a police officer is sent. From time to time, that call centre might also identify another person who might be sent to that situation to help out.

The specific provisions which he referred to are related to the Small Claims Court and the Superior Court. A Small Claims Court action is an action which involves $35,000 or less. However, there are some litigants who, notwithstanding that rule, will bring their litigation to the Superior Court for whatever motive—sometimes they are good motives, but sometimes they are not proper.

What this law provides is that when you have a claim of $35,000 or less and you seek to bring it to the Superior Court, you must first seek permission or leave from the Superior Court to do that. That should keep those claims that don’t belong there out of the Superior Court.

Now we’re debating this bill this week, and it seems to me that the NDP are once again turning on a dime.

I share the concerns of the member that we need to make sure that police are properly funded, notwithstanding the very negative and sometimes disheartening criticism that is levelled at our police. We need to stand up for them, make sure that they’re properly funded, and praise them for the job they’re doing.

Speaker, the member for Essex made his presentation on this bill. In response to a question from my colleague from Niagara, he talked about potential alternate responses to calls coming into the police for people experiencing mental health distress. I would appreciate if he could tell us what responses provided for in this bill will be made available to those in mental health distress.