Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my next question is for the government leader in the Senate and concerns a topic I’ve raised twice previously, but it hasn’t yet been answered: the serious matter of a national 9-8-8 suicide prevention hotline.

In December 2020, a motion from B.C. member of Parliament Todd Doherty to create this hotline unanimously passed in the other place. When I originally asked you about this, leader, I noted that given your government’s inaction on the motion to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRCG, as a terrorist entity, we would need to keep pressing the government to make the 9-8-8 hotline a reality. Little did I know then that I would be asking you the very same question, today, a year and a half later.

Leader, you’ve taken this question on notice twice before, in December 2020 and a year ago, in June 2021, and failed to provide an answer. What is your government’s plan and timetable to implement a national suicide prevention hotline?

Senator Martin: According to the B.C. Coroners Service, 582 people in my province died by suicide last year. How many of those lives could have been saved if Canada had one easy-to-remember, three-digit hotline number that they could have called?

Leader, for well over a year now, there has been a question on the Senate Order Paper asking for basic information about the work your government is undertaking on the 9-8-8 hotline. Have you collaborated with provinces and territories? How many public servants are working on this, and is a different number, rather than 9-8-8, being considered?

These questions and more have never been answered. Why is that, leader? Is it because you have no progress to report, or is it because the suicide prevention hotline is just not a priority for your government?

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader. I’m going to return to the issue that I didn’t get to fully articulate yesterday regarding the government’s broken promise to provide $3.2 billion to the provinces and territories for the hiring of 7,500 new family doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners.

According to the B.C. College of Family Physicians, almost one million people in my province alone do not have a family doctor and are unable to get one — one million. Earlier this month, the Canadian Medical Association said the lack of access to family doctors is a growing crisis, and it urged all levels of government to address the issues that are “decimating primary care across the country.”

Leader, I will try again to ask, why did the NDP-Liberal budget fail to include this specific promise to fund 7,500 new doctors and nurses starting this fiscal year?

Senator Martin: As I’m sure you know, some Canadians who don’t have access to a family doctor will ultimately seek care at a hospital emergency room. This past weekend, three hospitals that serve smaller communities in different parts of B.C. closed their emergency rooms due to staff shortages. These types of closures are becoming a common occurrence.

On Monday, the mayor of Clearwater told CTV that their local hospital emergency room has been closed so many times in recent months that he can’t even keep track of the number of times this has happened.

Leader, does the NDP-Liberal government have any timeline for when it intends to fulfill its promise of 7,500 new doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners in Canada? And how did you determine that 7,500 was an adequate number?

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my question is in regard to what is happening in my home province — and, I think, across Canada — regarding the shortage of family physicians. Leader, during last year’s federal election campaign, your government promised to provide $3.2 billion to the provinces and territories for the hiring of 7,500 new family doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners, beginning this fiscal year. However, the recent NDP-Liberal budget failed to include this commitment. Could you tell us why?