Thank you very much.

Supplementary question?

The final supplementary?

The Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

To reply, the government House leader.

The Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

The minister has a couple more seconds to finish his response.

My question is for the Premier. On average, four children a week end up in a Hamilton emergency room for self-harm. There has been a significant uptake of children engaging in self-harming behaviours, yet the wait-list for treatment continues to grow. The health and well-being of our children is critical, but they are not getting the help they need.

I wrote to the minister back in January about this issue and I have yet to receive a response, so I’m asking once again: Will this government support our children and commit to investing in Hamilton’s youth mental health programming and to build human resource capacity?

Not only does this government need to be supporting the work of community mental health organizations; it needs to address the stressors that are causing mental health breakdowns across the population in the first place. Let’s take the mental health of hospital staff—people we call heroes—on the one hand, while choking the physical and mental-health life out of them through repressive legislation; or our schools, where teachers and EAs are understaffed and under-resourced, paying for school supplies for their students out of their own pockets; or the university and college students mired in debt, working several part-time jobs because tuition fees are absurdly high; or children with disabilities and their parents desperately trying to navigate a hostile system that keeps children on wait-lists years after year with no communication, no guidance and no help in sight. And let’s not forget the adults with disabilities thrown under the bus, those abandoned by the WSIB along with others, forced to give up almost every asset so that they can access the few crumbs of ODSP the government throws out to them.

These are social and economic determinants of health, and they are also the determinants of mental health. When it is easier to get MAID than to find the supports to live, people get a very strong message that no, actually they are not worth it. That is the message they are given, and that is a very significant part of people’s suffering.

Individuals trying their best to provide support services are also breaking down themselves, as they are forced to reapply for funding every year, never knowing whether they will actually even have a practice.

And then, I want to say, Indigenous children and families who are that much geographically removed from municipalities—well, they don’t have access to water; they don’t have access to health care. What is the message to them? The message again is, “You’re not worth it.”

I want to give my support to this motion. I’m happy that there is a conversation going on across the aisle. We may not always agree in our analysis of what is contributing to so much mental health distress, but I think we can agree on the need for support.

It’s an honour to rise today to add my voice to the official opposition leader’s motion today to do something incredibly important, incredibly timely, something that is not only a good choice for humans but is a good choice fiscally.

Mental health is apolitical. We’ve heard stories across the aisle today—really impactful, important stories. Like no other time before, it is as though the government and the opposition are on the same page. We have the opportunity today to employ a positive, proactive solution to the struggles that many people face across this province.

Middlesex-London Health Unit indicated that 48% of the population indicated that their mental health was declining as a result of the pandemic. We’ve seen cost of living going through the roof, whether it’s the cost of housing, food, child care. People are also worried about possibly paying more for their health care. We have seen many people in the small business community living on a razor’s edge, not sure if they were going to get the supports to make it through the pandemic, and employees that were worried every time that they showed up to their place of work whether the doors would be locked. It’s not even to mention the folks who are on really terrible social assistance rates, because being on those rates exacerbates mental health conditions even more when you’re worried about the bottom line every single month.

This government also—as I had the opportunity to travel with the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, my colleagues and I heard from many CMHA branches that they have had only a 2% base funding increase in the last 10 years. We have an opportunity today to address that with only $24 million. Think about the lives that can be impacted. We as a Legislature can show that we believe in the great work of the CMHA. We as a Legislature have the opportunity today to make sure that we support all of those people in the communities who are on the front lines doing that life-changing work, and we as a Legislature can show today with our vote that we want people to get the mental health supports when and where they need them in their communities.

I urge this government: Let’s get this done. Please vote in support. Vote for mental health.