My question is for the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. It’s a reality that every year, more than one million people in Ontario experience mental health and addictions challenges.

In 2020, our government introduced the Roadmap to Wellness initiative, a strategy that builds and strengthens access to quality mental health care and addictions services in our province. This initiative was created with the goal of improving mental health care for everyone across Ontario.

Our government must remain committed to building an Ontario where everyone is fully supported in their journey towards mental wellness. Speaker, can the associate minister please provide an update on the progress that our government has made to improve the delivery of critical mental health services?

Speaker, the opioid crisis is creating serious impacts on rural, remote and northern communities across our province. In northern Ontario, the population has unfortunately experienced higher rates of overdose than any other region in Ontario. With transportation being a significant barrier to accessing mental health and addictions services, many Ontarians who live in the north are looking to connect with care that’s closer to their homes. Our government must do all that we can to address the ongoing challenges in accessing service in northern communities.

Speaker, can the associate minister please share what our government is doing to ensure that all Ontarians have access to high-quality mental health and addictions care?

Thank you to the member for that very important question and for the opportunity to talk about how we’re rebuilding and modernizing Ontario’s mental health care and addictions system. The Roadmap to Wellness, our plan to build Ontario’s mental health and addictions system, will improve mental health services for communities across Ontario and support patients and families living with mental health and addictions challenges. Investments through the roadmap and Addictions Recovery Fund are allowing us to build a recovery-oriented continuum of care that’s focused on giving people their lives back, and that’s extremely important.

For instance, Mr. Speaker, we’ve opened 22 youth wellness hubs, provided over $40 million to create mobile crisis response teams and expanded care for rural communities by creating new mobile mental health clinics. I’m proud to say that by the end of 2023 those investments will have supported the creation of over 500 new addiction treatment beds across the—

This summer, I had the privilege of visiting Sioux Lookout for the opening of a new 37-bed treatment facility funded by a $4-million investment by our government. These new beds will allow local residents as well as members of the numerous Indigenous communities in northwest Ontario access to life-saving treatment and addictions services closer to their homes and to their loved ones.

Speaker, our goal is to ensure that everyone in Ontario has the support needed to live a happy and healthy life free from the pain of addiction. We’re going to continue making investments that are evidence-based, culturally appropriate and recovery-oriented, because we believe in ensuring that people with addictions get the support and the care they need where and when they need it, no matter where they are in the province.