Of course, it’s always a pleasure to stand in this House, especially when we’re proposing solutions to the government.

This motion actually has a lot of merit. It does value the experience that we’ve all had in our communities.

Certainly, my seatmate in here and I spent January and February listening to front-line health care workers—particularly in mental health, particularly in community care—and they told us about the humiliation they feel with Bill 124. They talked about the emotional labour that they experience because of this wage-suppression legislation and how demoralizing it is for them. So I want to thank them for showing up day after day. But the fact of the matter is, that’s not sustainable.

The motion that our leader has put forward on behalf of the caucus is a short-term-gap solution which will prevent the further bleeding out of workers from this sector.

I also want to talk about the economic reasons to support this motion. In Canada, 500,000 Canadians each week do not go to work because of mental health issues. The economic burden of mental illness in Canada is estimated to be approximately $51 billion—$6.4 billion resulting from lost productivity alone.

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Kaitlyn Roth from my community, who called out for help, had the courage to ask for help. That help was never there for her, and we lost her. You can’t quantify the loss of that life. We will never know her potential, because the services were not there. At the end, though, we know that because she was in such distress, she had come into contact with 27 police officers. Four of those police officers were there when she died by suicide, and they are off work.

So there’s a trickle-out effect in our community by not taking action, by not showing leadership.

Speaker, $24 million is literally a drop in the bucket.

I implore this government: Please, do the right thing. Let’s stabilize, let’s support, and let’s work together on this issue.