Senator Martin: Thank you for that. Leader, in addition to refusing to provide information on how the initial $16 million will be allocated, the three departments I just mentioned also refused to provide the PBO with information on the ongoing tasks, staffing and costs associated with the implementation of Bill C-13.

The NDP-Liberal government clearly believes that it can limit debate, and it can brush off an officer of Parliament’s request for information, but this is ultimately taxpayers’ money.

Leader, why is your government being so secretive with this information? Will the NDP-Liberal government instruct these three departments to provide the PBO’s Office with the information needed to do their job?

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my question for the Leader of the Government in the Senate also regards Bill C-13. Last week, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, released a report which looks into the financial cost of Bill C-13. This analysis was conducted at the request of the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages. The PBO report states that three departments — Canadian Heritage, Treasury Board and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — all wrongfully refused to disclose how they will allocate $16 million set aside in the Economic and Fiscal Update 2021 for the initial implementation costs of Bill C-13.

Leader, as Senator Plett just pointed out, the NDP-Liberal government is limiting debate on this bill in the House committee and you’re also refusing to disclose information on Bill C-13 to the PBO. Could you tell us why?

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?