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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 166

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 8, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 166 - Mar/8/23
Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)
  • Mar/8/23 7:09:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is kind of like Groundhog Day. I have come in here every week that we have sat this year to drag the government in here to talk about mental health and talk about this epidemic happening in our country. It is not often that members will hear me quote the Bible in the House of Commons, but I want to talk about “The Parable of the Unjust Judge”, also known as “The Parable of the Importunate Widow” or “The Parable of the Persistent Woman”. According to Wikipedia, it is “one of the parables of Jesus, which appears in the Gospel of Luke (18:1-8). In it, a judge who lacks compassion is repeatedly approached by a woman seeking justice. Initially rejecting her demands, he eventually honors her request so he will not be worn out by her persistence.” It is about what it takes to be persistent to get justice. Right now, we know that, in Canada, there is no parity between mental and physical health. In fact, there are a lot of people who are suffering and who are not getting the help they need. I will be back the next week the House sits to drag the government here, and I will continue to be in the House of Commons until we get parity between mental and physical health. This is timely, because I got an email from a constituent of mine. He wrote me that his son is addicted to fentanyl. He cited that he is going to have to make a decision, because it is about $300 a day for his son to be in treatment. His son wants to get help. Obviously, his family wants to support him, but the father has to make a decision on whether to sell his home and give his son a fighting chance to live, or abandon his son. We know he will have to make a difficult decision. I do not even have it in me to call him. I am hoping the minister will actually call him. It is an injustice. If his son fell, broke his back, neck or leg and was hospitalized, he would be taken care of. His father would not have to consider selling his home. He would get looked after. This is an absolute disgrace in a wealthy country like Canada. We know that countries like Britain and France are spending about 12% of their health care budgets on mental health. Canada has still failed to deliver on its mental health transfer. It is $875 million short, to date, of what it promised to spend. We still do not know the details of the bilateral agreements. I am here to talk about a couple of things. I also want to talk about the frontline health workers who are working right now. It is really important that we think about them. It is in the minister's mandate letter to look out for those mental health workers. Right now, we know many of them are underpaid. I could spend all day talking about them. They are critical in delivering mental health services to people. In fact, I was in the pool this morning and I met a woman who said that Ontario is spending about 3% on mental health. That is far shy of what my home province spends, which is about 9%. She said she is getting a 1% raise for the next four years, despite the fact that inflation is way higher. What does she get as a thanks? She gets a video from her executive director saying she has done a great job and she is appreciated. This is absolutely abominable. We need to look out for our frontline service workers. I hope we will hear some answers today about the government and its promises.
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Context: House Hansard - 166 - Mar/8/23
Mr. Gord Johns
  • Mar/8/23 7:12:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, across the country, governments are turning to trusted community organizations to cope and to deal with services around connecting and recovery. The demands are complex and they are high. They have been exacerbated by the pandemic. These organizations are struggling with underfunding, rising costs and labour market shortages. The national organizations are looking for a “caring for carers” investment in the mental health and frontline community service workers in this budget. I hope the government would look to that as part of its recovery agenda. In that, they are looking for $100 million for evidence-based mental health supports for frontline community service workers, to expand immediate access to mental health and substance use health supports for staff, to fund research on best practices and to enhance organizational capacity building for psychologically healthy and safe workplaces. I hope the government honours that in this budget. Madam Speaker, we will probably see this when we get back, because the government has been failing on every promise it has made on mental health. Hopefully, it will deliver before then.
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