- Member of Parliament
- Conservative
- Edmonton—Wetaskiwin
- Alberta
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $178,671.82
- Government Page
- Jun/1/22 10:56:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as we look to make progress on this issue, I am banking on the fact that Canadians who just heard my question and that answer will recognize that the response had nothing to do at all with the question I asked. I am going to ask it again, and I am hoping the parliamentary secretary will put away her notes and just answer the question.
In the Liberal platform that she ran on eight months ago, her party promised $250 million for a Canada mental health transfer in fiscal year 2021-22, which we were already halfway through during the election campaign. Clearly the promise was for an immediate investment in a Canada mental health transfer, with a subsequent investment of $625 million this year and then continuing for the next three years.
My question is simple and I think Canadians expect a response. Where can Canadians look to find the delivery of that promise?
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- Jun/1/22 10:47:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here tonight to follow up on a question I asked the Prime Minister on May 18.
I think it is important in these late shows to give a little context for people who might be seeing this live, but more likely on social media after we post the clips from this. The late show is our opportunity to have a conversation in which we follow up on something where we feel like we did not get an adequate response from the government during question period. That is usually the case. We get this opportunity to choose which questions we are going to follow up on.
The parliamentary secretary who will answer my question today, and who has four minutes to respond, knows the question I am going to refer to, and has the full power of the minister's office and the Prime Minister's Office to prepare the response. We would expect a fulsome response tonight, hopefully.
The very specific question that was asked of the Prime Minister on May 18 was:
Mr. Speaker, four times in the past two weeks I have asked questions about the Canada mental health transfer: an election commitment quite obviously broken by the Liberal government. The minister never even pretended to attempt an answer.
Page 75 of the Liberal platform clearly promises immediate funding of $250 million and then another $625 million in this year's budget. There has to be an explanation as to why the Liberals broke this significant promise to vulnerable Canadians. Could the Prime Minister simply tell us what that explanation is?
Of course, the Prime Minister did not tell us what the explanation was, so I am going to elaborate a little on this.
On page 5 of the Liberal platform, the document the party used to get elected about seven or eight months ago, the Liberals said that they would:
Commit to permanent, ongoing funding for mental health services under the Canada Mental Health Transfer, with an initial investment of $4.5 billion over five years.
In the costing of the Liberals' platform, the timeline that they were promising was very clear, because on page 75 of the platform, under “New investments” and “Canada Mental Health Transfer” for 2021-22, they committed $250 million, and then for 2022-23 it was $625 million with ongoing funding for the next three years. It was very clear that the commitment was to begin immediately, yet in the budget and in any fiscal planning document that we have seen from the government since then, nowhere to be found is anything related to the Canada mental health transfer.
We had the opportunity to ask officials at committee, and they had no answers for us. On May 5, we asked the minister the question. I asked her, and she called my questions “annoying” and “despicable”, and did not give an answer. I had the chance to ask the parliamentary secretary a week later, on May 12, and she clearly did not understand the question, because she talked about the suicide prevention hotline and did not talk about the Canada mental health transfer at all. By the way, the response to the question that I did not ask about the suicide prevention hotline was not an answer at all, even in relation to that thing. I then had the chance to ask the Prime Minister.
For the parliamentary secretary, what I hope today is for her to simply point us to a financial document of the government: a budget, budget implementation bill or some other document where it is clear that the government is spending the money that it promised during the election campaign for the Canada mental health transfer.
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- May/18/22 3:05:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, then why did they make the promise? The Prime Minister recently stood here and actually said, with a straight face, “We will not simply fall back on slogans and easy solutions....” Instead, with the current government, it is always only slogans and no solutions.
More than 30 times this year, including a couple of times today, the Prime Minister has responded to legitimate questions by shrugging them off and offering yet another mind-numbing reference to “having Canadians' backs”. On his signature promise of a Canada mental health transfer, he is turning his back on Canadians who really need help. Again, simply, why is he breaking his word on such an important commitment?
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- May/18/22 3:04:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, four times in the past two weeks I have asked questions about the Canada mental health transfer, an election commitment quite obviously broken by the Liberal government. The minister never even pretended to attempt an answer.
Page 75 of the Liberal platform clearly promises immediate funding of $250 million and then another $625 million in this year's budget. There has to be an explanation as to why the Liberals broke this significant promise to vulnerable Canadians. Could the Prime Minister simply tell us what that explanation is?
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- May/12/22 2:47:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that did not even come close to answering the question we actually asked.
We have asked consistently very fair, straightforward questions on the issue of the Canada mental health transfer. Last week, the minister dismissed them as “annoying” and “despicable”. If the minister is annoyed with anyone, perhaps it should be with her own Prime Minister, who has put her in such an awkward, indefensible position by breaking a clear promise to the most vulnerable Canadians. If anything is despicable, it is that.
Why did the Liberal government break a clear commitment on one of the most critical issues facing Canadians today?
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- May/12/22 2:46:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while it was trying to get elected, the Liberal Party used the words “mental health” 66 times in its platform, but we are losing 11 Canadians every day to suicide, and we still do not have a three-digit suicide prevention hotline. We are losing 19 Canadians every day to a raging opioid crisis that continues to worsen, and now the Liberals have broken their cornerstone mental health commitment from an election campaign fought just months ago.
Can the minister explain to Canadians struggling with their mental health why her party broke the commitment it so solemnly made to help them when it was looking for their votes?
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- May/5/22 2:59:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today we are talking about the 2022 budget, and several things are very clear. During the election, many parties made substantial commitments on mental health. The cornerstone of the Liberal commitment was the Canada mental health transfer, beginning with $250 million for 2021-22. The Liberals made an agreement with the NDP, and many elements of that agreement remain highly secret. Subsequently, the Canada mental health transfer has been shelved.
Canadians deserve to know this: What other Liberal platform commitments have been negotiated away in the deal with the NDP?
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- May/5/22 2:57:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just months ago during the election, the Liberal platform made a firm commitment of $4.5 billion over five years for a Canada mental health transfer, very specifically including $250 million in 2021-22 and $625 million in 2022-23. This promise was clearly broken in the budget.
What happened between the election and the budget? It was, of course, the NDP-Liberal agreement to cling to power. As part of that agreement, did the NDP demand that the Liberals break their commitment on mental health in order to fund other NDP priorities?
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