It’s great to see the Queen’s mining engineering students here today for PDAC. I would like to introduce Jonah Odlozinski from my riding of Simcoe North. Great to see you here, Jonah.

Before I start my speech, I would like to thank the member from Windsor West; I’d like to thank the member from Nepean for her sharing—very emotional. It is an emotional topic we’re talking about today. Thank you to the member from Hamilton Mountain, as well.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to this motion this afternoon. As the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health and to the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, I’m proud to highlight the work we’ve been doing to improve mental health and addiction services across the province.

Ontario is making record investments to improve health care delivery and to connect you faster and more easily and closer to home.

This motion speaks to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s pre-budget submission.

I look forward to our government’s release of Ontario budget 2023, a plan to build a strong future for Ontario, on March 23.

In my riding, the Canadian Mental Health Association York and South Simcoe is an award-winning team that provides excellent services to local residents. These services are funded through Ontario Health; the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services; and the Ministry of Long-Term Care, as well as the Ontario Trillium Foundation. I’d like to thank the entire team for their selfless commitment to the people in our community.

Over the past two months, our government crossed the province to hear from Ontarians through pre-budget consultations. We went to many communities, including Kenora, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Kingston, and the GTA—Mississauga, Brampton, Durham—London, to seek pre-budget advice on what matters most for the people of Ontario and what Ontarians think are the best ways to move forward.

I was happy to attend the pre-budget session at Old Town Hall in Newmarket, hosted by the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Finance.

Across the province, we heard about the need for more access to health care, and you cannot talk about health care without talking about mental health care.

Every year, more than one million people in Ontario experience a mental health or addictions challenge, which can have serious impact on their quality of life, including the ability to go to school or make a living. The system to support individuals with these challenges has been broken and fragmented for many years. People who badly needed support were waiting far too long to connect to care or having difficulty figuring out how to even begin navigating a complicated, disjointed system to get the help they need. Too often, they were left to struggle on their own.

We are determined to fix long-standing issues in the mental health and addictions care sector once and for all, but we know that doing so will take time. That’s why, three years ago, we launched our comprehensive strategy, Roadmap to Wellness: A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System, to improve mental health services for communities across Ontario and support patients and families living with mental health and addictions challenges. The plan is built on four central pillars: improving quality, expanding existing services, implementing innovative solutions, and improving access. These are designed to work together to support the delivery of the services people need where and when they need them. We launched the Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence within Ontario Health to guide our work. To ensure the plan’s success, we are investing $3.8 billion over 10 years to develop and implement a comprehensive and connected mental health and addictions system for Ontario. Since launching the plan, we have already invested more than $500 million annually to help mental health and addiction services expand access to care and reduce wait times.

We have also launched innovative new programs, including the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program, to provide more Ontarians support for anxiety and depression with cognitive behaviour therapy, new eating disorders prevention, and early intervention programming.

Madame la Présidente, chaque année, plus d’un million de personnes en Ontario présentent un problème de santé mentale ou de dépendances, ce qui peut avoir de graves répercussions sur leur qualité de vie, y compris leur capacité d’aller à l’école ou de gagner leur vie.

Le système pour soutenir les particuliers présentant de tels enjeux ne fonctionnait plus et était fragmenté depuis plusieurs années. Les personnes qui avaient grandement besoin d’aide attendaient beaucoup trop longtemps pour être aiguillées vers des soins ou avaient de la difficulté à comprendre comment commencer à s’orienter dans un système compliqué et décentralisé pour obtenir de l’aide. Elles étaient trop souvent laissées à elles-mêmes pour lutter contre leurs problèmes.

Nous sommes déterminés à régler une fois pour toutes les problèmes de longue date du secteur des soins en matière de santé mentale et de lutte contre les dépendances. Parvenir à cela prendra du temps.

Il y a trois ans, nous avons lancé notre stratégie exhaustive—Vers le mieux-être : un plan pour bâtir le système ontarien de santé mentale et de lutte contre les dépendances—pour améliorer les services de santé mentale pour les collectivités ontariennes et pour appuyer les patients et les familles qui vivent avec des problèmes de santé mentale ou de dépendance.

Le plan est construit sur quatre piliers centraux—amélioration de la qualité, développement des services existants, mise en oeuvre de solutions innovantes et amélioration de l’accessibilité—qui sont conçus pour travailler ensemble afin de soutenir la prestation des services dont la population a besoin, où et quand ce besoin se fait sentir. Nous avons inauguré le Centre d’excellence pour la santé mentale et la lutte contre les dépendances qui relève de Santé Ontario pour guider notre travail.

Afin d’assurer la réussite du plan, nous investissons 3,8 milliards de dollars sur 10 ans afin de développer et de déployer un système exhaustif et interconnecté en matière de santé mentale et de lutte contre les dépendances pour la population ontarienne. Depuis le lancement de ce plan, nous avons déjà investi plus de 500 millions de dollars annuellement pour aider les services de santé mentale et de lutte contre les dépendances à élargir l’accès aux soins et réduire les temps d’attente.

Nous avons par ailleurs lancé de nouveaux programmes innovateurs, notamment le Programme ontarien de psychothérapie structurée pour offrir à la population ontarienne du soutien pour l’anxiété et la dépression avec la thérapie cognitivo-comportementale, ainsi qu’un nouveau programme de prévention et d’intervention précoce en matière de troubles de l’alimentation.

Speaker, our government knows that when someone reaches out for help, they shouldn’t have to wait. That’s why we are opening new beds to care for children and youth with complex mental health needs.

We are investing $10.5 million to address gaps in care and improve access while decreasing existing wait-lists and extensive wait times. Through this investment, we are expanding the child and youth mental health Secure Treatment Program and adding up to 24 new beds to serve vulnerable children and youth. This program provides intensive care for children and youth experiencing acute and complex mental health challenges that may put them at risk of self-harm or harm to others.

Additionally, an investment of $3.5 million for two new Step Up Step Down live-in treatment programs will connect more youth to care in communities in western and northern regions of the province. We will add up to 16 new beds to meet the needs of youth who don’t require the highly intensive care provided at a hospital or secure treatment setting but who need more support than a community-based, live-in treatment program is designed for. Expanding this program will connect more youth to less intensive services in their communities and eventually help them return to their homes.

I am so thankful to the entire team at Southlake Regional Health Centre for the extraordinary care they provide to my constituents of Newmarket–Aurora, for the patients and the families in northern York region, southern Simcoe county, and surrounding communities. Our local health care workers make a significant difference in people’s lives each and every day. I thank them for all they do to protect our health and our well-being.

On February 13, I had the honour of welcoming the Minister of Health to my riding to celebrate the grand opening of the new adult in-patient mental health unit at Southlake. This is a prime example of how our government is expanding health care services closer to home. The Ministry of Health is a tremendous supporter of our hospitals and the important role of local health care. We are focused on providing patients and families with more connected and convenient care, and this new adult in-patient unit provides exactly that to my region of northern York. With our investment of more than $6.5 million, 12 new mental health beds and support spaces have been added, for a total capacity of 28 beds. With this expansion, Southlake will be able to provide care for more than 400 additional patients each year. The newly renovated space includes private rooms, more windows with natural light, and common areas to support patient recovery. These improvements will ensure that individuals who need emergency mental health support receive the care they need in a safe, modern and comfortable environment. From the time we announced the funding for these additional in-patient adult beds, Southlake completed the renovations within two years.

Thank you to the Southlake team for everything you do to support our communities and for helping some of our most vulnerable residents on their journey to wellness.

Another organization in my riding, CMHA York and South Simcoe—in early January, I had the opportunity to visit their Aurora office, alongside the Associate Minister of Housing, to announce that CMHA York and South Simcoe was the recipient of an Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund grant. A total of $104,000 was granted over a 12-month period that started on March 24, 2022. Since receiving this grant, it has assisted CMHA to rebuild and recover from the impacts of COVID-19 by hiring a mental health educator last year to expand the CMHA college course curriculum and also to train staff on virtual and in-person mental health education programming. The grant was also instrumental to the translation of materials to support outreach and inclusivity, development of a learning management system enabling clients to create individual learning portals, and technology enhancements to better facilitate synchronized and asynchronized learning. All courses at the CMHA College of Health and Well-Being are designed to inspire hope, support learning and provide new opportunities for growth and connection. It was wonderful to listen to a very young lady—my words, “a very young lady”—speak about the program, as she found herself in crisis. Through the guidance of the staff and this course, she was able to learn at a pace convenient to her schedule, while allowing her to speak with a counsellor. This is the successful outcome we are all striving for—for our young people to have convenient and connected care where and when they need it.

It is not-for-profit community-based organizations like CMHA of York region that strengthen our community by providing support to young adults with the resources required to improve one’s mental health and strengthen one’s emotional resilience. To quote the CEO of CMHA-YRSS, “We are incredibly grateful for the government’s generous grant that is enabling our CMHA college to bolster mental health and recovery support to marginalized clients in our community.”

Ensuring that individuals in our community have access to the support and resources they require has been and always will be a top priority for me. As the MPP for Newmarket–Aurora and the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health, I am committed to supporting the mental health and well-being of all our community members.

I am proud of our government’s investment in the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund grant as it supports agencies in our community to focus on their work and strengthen their programs for all our residents.

At the end of April 2022, the government announced an investment of over $1 million in Newmarket–Aurora non-profits to help them offset the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic—the goal being to ensure that they can deliver the critical services needed by their local clients and to create stronger communities.

I was thrilled to hear that one of these grants through the Resilient Communities Fund grant program from the Ontario Trillium Foundation would be supporting NACCA, the Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association. NACCA was granted $49,600 over six months. These funds helped build an online virtual mental wellness support platform program for Black marginalized and under-represented youth ages 12 to 25. The seamless entry program helps to support strategies for those experiencing ongoing anti-Black racism that has had a tremendous impact on their well-being. Delivered with an Afrocentric focus, the program enables Black youth to experience a greater awareness of themselves, their mental wellness and community of peers. It is intended to be delivered in a partial virtual environment at the NACCA Black-led community centre in Newmarket and at various on-site community-based projects.

To quote the chair of NACCA, Jerisha Grant-Hall, “Youth are a foundational part and important beneficiaries of our programs and services and will continue to be a big focus for NACCA. This grant sets in motion the start of a mental health literacy, advocacy and healing support network for Black youth that is so needed.”

Speaker, we’re also expanding access to primary care to make it easier and faster for individuals of all ages to connect to mental health and addictions through community health centres, family health teams and walk-in clinics.

Ontario health teams also bring together health care providers from across health and community sectors, including primary care, hospitals, home and community care, mental health and addictions services, and long-term care, as one collaborative team to better coordinate care and share resources. Working together, they ensure that you can move between health care providers more easily with one patient record and one care plan that follows you wherever you go for help.

Ontario health teams are responsible for delivering care for their patients, understanding their health care history, easing their transition from one provider to another, directly connecting them to different types of care, and providing 24/7 help in navigating the health care system.

Across the province, 54 Ontario health teams are working to improve transitions between health care providers and are ensuring a patient’s medical record follows them wherever they go for care.

Applications for four additional Ontario health teams are currently being reviewed. Once approved, these remaining teams will result in the province achieving its goal of full provincial coverage, ensuring everyone has the support of an Ontario health team.

With an investment of more than $106 million, Ontario health teams are also investing in digital and virtual care options so you can easily connect with a mental health care worker when you need to from the comfort of your home.

To support health human resources to provide these services, last fall we began our work to develop an Integrated Capacity and Health Human Resources Plan for Ontario. We are analyzing current gaps in our system, anticipating needs over the next 10 years, and determining solutions to address growing health care demands. The plan will focus on how to meet this demand through investments, health human resources and innovative solutions. This year, we are building on this work and shifting our focus to working directly with leaders in our health care system on a workforce plan that includes where to prioritize current and future resources, addressing and minimizing system gaps, and building a strong health system for the long term. We will also look at specific strategies for increasing the number of health care professionals, starting with physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered practical nurses and medical laboratory technologists. We’ll also look at the retention of our health workforce through incentives, leveraging programs like the Learn and Stay program. We will ensure we have a greater understanding of each community and their needs, and that we have a plan to recruit and retain the health care workers needed, including family doctors, nurses, specialists and other health providers. We will prioritize areas most in need, like rural and remote communities, where gaps already exist. This plan will incorporate our lessons learned from COVID-19 and ensure we are prepared and equipped to meet the health care needs of Ontarians for years to come.

Finally, I’d like to remind this House that our government is making historic investments of more than $75 billion annually in health and long-term care this year.

I look forward to budget day 2023, my first budget day as the MPP for Newmarket–Aurora, on March 23, to share more details on how we will continue to build a strong province and invest in the things that matter most to Ontarians, like health care and mental health and addictions services, for years to come.