- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Courtenay—Alberni
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67
- Government Page
- Nov/2/23 2:51:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with the cost of living crisis, Canadians cannot afford the therapy they need. If they try for public care, wait-lists are months to years long. There is no postpandemic recovery plan to help people with their mental health. So many people are suffering in silence. This is not acceptable, especially when the Liberals have yet to deliver on the $4.5-billion mental health transfer. For a government that claims to champion mental health, it sure does delay and disappoint. Breaking this promise will cost lives.
Will the Liberals change course and deliver the mental health transfer to get people the help they so urgently need?
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- Oct/17/23 6:25:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am here tonight on behalf of the 40,000 Canadian families that have lost loved ones since 2016, since the Liberals formed government, due to the toxic drug supply. I am here also on behalf of those living with problematic substance use and recreational substance use who are dying from preventable deaths.
Just to give some context, right now in Canada, about 180 Canadians per million die due to toxic drugs. In British Columbia, my home province, it is 430. In the Island Health region, it is over 500, and in the Alberni Valley, where I live, it is over 1,000. For those under the age of 49, it is right now over 2,100 people per million who are dying from toxic drugs. It is off the chart.
I have been asking, and New Democrats have been asking, for the federal government to come up with a plan, a timeline and resources to respond to this health emergency. In fact, not only has the Liberal government failed to do that, but it also has not spent even 1% of what it spent on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Why is that? It is because of the stigma. That is the only reason it has not responded. There are solutions out there.
I took it upon myself to go to Portugal last summer, on my own dime, to learn from Portugal, because it had six deaths per million. To paint the picture of how many people are dying in Canada, just to put things in perspective, more people have died in Canada from a toxic drug supply than in all of the European Union, with a population of over 450 million people.
The Portuguese story is quite interesting, because that country had a massive drug crisis that was claiming the lives of many people in the mid-nineties. Over 1,000 people were dying, primarily heroin users. There were 1,000 heroin users in a population of 10 million people. Just to put things in perspective, in my home province of British Columbia, we have 100,000 chronic substance users in a population of five million people. We have double what they had, in terms of per capita usage, of chronic substance users.
The Portuguese realized it was a health emergency and responded like it was a health emergency. They convened a table of experts. They decided to move forward with expert-based policy. They created treatment on demand and a safer supply of substances. They scaled up. They had 250 people on methadone at the start of their program, and they scaled that up to 35,000 in two years. They used the military to create labs, to lower the cost and to get supply out the door. Today, they have 20,000 chronic substance users. They focused on harm reduction, making sure that people got the support they did.
I will talk about the politicians and what they did. They were the heroes. They took the gloves off, stepped out of the way, stopped playing politics and got rid of their ideology. Portugal focused on evidence-based decision-making led by experts, and put forward a plan with resources, a timeline and a strategy. It was unbelievable.
We actually had an expert task force on substance use from Health Canada. What did the federal government do? It chose to ignore them. There is still no plan, no timeline and no resources. When is the government going to treat this as a true public health emergency? Where is the urgency?
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- 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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- Nov/15/22 3:17:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. There have been consultations and I believe, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion that, given that, first, the mental health of Canadians has been negatively impacted by the COVID–19 pandemic; second, the toxic drug crisis has worsened during the COVID–19 pandemic and continues to have a tragic impact on communities; third, too many Canadians are unable to access mental health or substance use supports in a timely manner and economic conditions are exacerbating financial barriers; and fourth, lack of timely access to community-based mental health and substance use services is adding to the immense strain facing our hospitals and primary care providers; the House call on the government to take the necessary steps to bring a comprehensive range of mental health and substance use services beyond physician and hospital settings into our universal public health care system.
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- Nov/1/22 3:13:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. There have been consultations and I hope that if you seek it, you will find consent for the following motion: That given that: one, that the mental health of Canadians has been negatively impacted by the pandemic; two, that economic conditions are exacerbating financial barriers to mental health supports; and, three, that our public health care system is under immense strain, the House call upon the government to put into place a Canada mental health transfer without delay.
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- Oct/20/22 8:49:18 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I really appreciate my colleague speaking to the sense of urgency. I have a quote from Children's Mental Health Ontario, CMHO, which reads:
Kids have borne the weight of this pandemic. They continue to wait on lists for care that were already too long pre-pandemic—some waiting as long as two and a half years in parts of Ontario. The longer kids wait for care, the worse their outcomes are—increasing the likelihood of a mental health crisis or having to visit an emergency room for care.
We can do better.
We can do better, and I think we all agree children need to be our priority. The Liberals say they cannot get it done because the provinces and territories cannot get an agreement. They were able to do it with child care. Does my colleague agree that the stigma is the problem? If this was truly a priority, they would have the provinces and the territories at the table and would have negotiated an agreement by now.
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- Oct/20/22 7:21:12 p.m.
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Madam Chair, we know the mental health crisis has been referred to as the parallel pandemic. This House has not had a debate on how to respond to this. Earlier this month, I rose and sought an emergency debate on Canada’s mental health crisis, but unfortunately it was denied.
I want to thank the minister, as she acknowledged tonight we have never had this conversation about mental health until tonight and we have never had a proper debate. I want to thank the Conservatives and the Bloc and their House leaders for agreeing to have this important conversation, because it took all parties to agree to do this take-note debate.
Over the last two and a half years, the mental health of Canadians has been negatively impacted by the loss, social isolation and financial strain the pandemic has brought. We all have constituents struggling with their mental health, and many of us have loved ones who are as well. My good friend from Vancouver Kingsway always says that there is not a family not touched by the mental health or substance use crisis in this country.
I really want to thank my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George for sharing his personal story about his brother Kevin and his brother-in-law. We hear those personal stories from our constituents every day as parliamentarians, and it is painful to hear.
We know we are going into a period where we are seeing a lot of impacts right now on people's health. The cost of living is rapidly rising and likely we are going to see a recession. The stress Canadians are facing has not abated. Just yesterday, the Minister of Finance warned Canadians of difficult days ahead and suggested the federal government might not be there to help.
Now more than ever we must recognize that mental health is health, and we need to take steps to ensure Canadians have equitable access to the services they need. This month, the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction released a joint report on the continuing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of Canadians, which detailed some alarming findings.
According to polling conducted for the report, 35% of respondents reported moderate to severe mental health concerns. We see that as parliamentarians. It also found that fewer than one in three people with current mental health concerns accessed services. That is alarming. The report identified key barriers to accessing services as “financial constraints, not having readily available help, not knowing how and where to get help, and long wait-lists.”
The report identified financial concerns as a top stressor during the pandemic and discussed the links between income and unemployment with mental health concerns. Given the current economic forecast, there is a real risk the mental health and substance use crisis will worsen in the months ahead. That is scary. As my colleagues have identified, 10 Canadians die a day from suicide and 21 from a toxic overdose.
We also know health care workers and first responders have been raising the alarm that our health care system is under tremendous pressure. Unfortunately, too many people struggling with mental health issues are left with nowhere to turn but crowded emergency rooms. A worsening mental health and substance use crisis will only push our health care system closer to collapse.
It is clear we need to make sure people can get help in their communities before they are in crisis. While there are many great organizations working hard to support Canadians struggling with mental health issues, we know they are running on fumes. The demand for mental health services has increased since the onset of the pandemic, but that demand cannot be met under the current system when frontline organizations are having to worry about keeping the lights on. They need help and they need help now.
We need system change that will finally bring mental health care fully into our universal public health care system once and for all. We need sustainable funding to ensure all Canadians have access to services when they need them.
In the last election, the Liberals made a promise to Canadians that they would take steps to improve access to mental health care in Canada. A cornerstone of the Liberals’ promises on mental health was to establish a new permanent transfer to the provinces and territories to expand publicly funded mental health care and address backlogs. Canadians were told an initial investment of $4.5 billion over five years would be made in the Canada mental health transfer.
Now, $250 million of that funding was supposed to be delivered in 2021-22, with an additional $625 million in 2022-23. To date, of that money, no funding has been delivered. There has been no transparency from the government on when the money would get out the door.
Last week the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, with the support of 65 organizations from health and allied sectors, wrote an open letter to the minister expressing concern about the delay in establishing the mental health transfer and calling on the government to take immediate steps to fulfill this important and critical campaign commitment.
The minister has taken the position that national performance standards must be developed prior to the creation of the Canada mental health transfer. However, the open letter I referred to demonstrated there is a clear consensus from the mental health community that the development of these standards should not delay the Canada mental health transfer. There is an urgent need for increased mental health services in communities right across the country. Wait times for publicly funded mental health services are unacceptably long.
In Ontario, where we are right now, there are more than 28,000 children on wait-lists for community-based mental health services. The wait could range from 67 days to more than 2.5 years, depending on the service, exceeding clinically appropriate wait times. For children and youth, delays in accessing care could have lifelong impacts for them, their family and society. Tragically, it could also be a matter of life and death.
According to Stats Canada, suicide is the leading cause of death among youth and young adults aged 15 to 34. This has touched my life and those of many people here in this chamber, as we have discussed tonight. UNICEF has reported that Canada has one of the highest rates of youth suicide in the world. We heard my colleague from Nunavut just two days ago share that tragic story of someone who could not find housing. This is unacceptable in a wealthy country like Canada. It is preventable.
For those struggling with substance use disorders, waiting could also be a matter of life and death. Across Canada the average wait time for adult residential treatment for substance use is 100 days. Every day that someone must wait for access to treatment or harm reduction services, they are put at risk because of the toxic drug supply.
The Canada mental health transfer would provide an infusion of money for services that could save lives now. It is urgently needed, but there is other critical work that must be done to transform mental health here in Canada. Beyond the mental health transfer, mental health advocates have been long calling for legislation to enshrine law parity between mental and physical health.
Last month I tabled private member's Motion No. 67, and I hope my colleagues will second it, calling on the government to finally develop that legislation and urgently fulfill its promise to establish the Canada mental health transfer. I hope all members of the House will recognize the crisis we are in and support these urgently needed calls to action.
Untreated or inadequately treated mental health carries significant social and economic costs. The Mental Health Commission of Canada estimates that mental health issues and illnesses cost Canada at least $50 billion a year, not including the more than $6 billion in lost productivity.
Relative to the disease burden caused by mental health and compared to our G7 and OECD peers, Canada is underspending on mental health. France spends 15% of its health care budget on mental health, whereas the U.K. spends 13%. Canada, depending on the province or territory, spends between 5% and 7%. We are falling way short.
For the well-being of Canadians, for our economy and our communities, mental health cannot wait. It is time to invest in the care Canadians deserve, and to truly treat mental health like health. We need to listen to the experts. We need to listen to the expert task force on substance use. We need to listen to the 67 organizations. I hope that together we can do that.
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- Oct/5/22 4:25:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have given notice, under Standing Order 52(2), seeking leave today, Wednesday, October 5, to request an emergency debate on the mental health and substance use crisis in Canada.
Yesterday, the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction released a joint report on the continuing impacts of the COVID–19 pandemic on the mental health of Canadians, which detailed some alarming findings.
According to polling conducted for the report, 35% of respondents reported moderate to severe mental health concerns. It also found that fewer than one in three people with current mental health concerns and fewer than one in four with problematic substance use are accessing services. The report identified the key barriers to accessing services: financial constraints, not having readily available help, not knowing how and where to get help, and long wait lists.
The report identified financial concerns as a top stressor during the pandemic and discussed the links of income and unemployment with mental health concerns. With the rapidly rising cost of living and speculation of an impending recession, there is a real risk that the mental health and substance use crisis will worsen in the months ahead.
We also know that medical professionals have been raising the alarm for months that our health care system is on the brink of collapse. As we head into colder months, when the burden on hospitals and health care workers is expected to increase, a worsening mental health and substance use crisis will only push our health care system closer to the edge.
The mental health crisis has been referred to as a “parallel pandemic”, but Parliament has not had a debate on how to respond. As such, I believe an urgent debate by parliamentarians is warranted on the steps that should be taken to support the mental health of Canadians and reduce the social and economic impacts of this crisis.
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- Sep/22/22 7:36:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this week marks one year since the 2021 election and it has been another difficult year for many, with more uncertainty on the horizon. The impacts of the pandemic continue to be felt in our communities. Our health care system is under intense strain and the rising cost of living is adding stress to the daily lives of Canadians.
In the last election the Liberals made a promise to Canadians that they would take steps to improve access to mental health care here in Canada. That is certainly needed as polls have shown that about half of Canadians suffered from worsened mental health since the onset of the pandemic. Unfortunately, too many Canadians are unable to access mental health care when they need it because of long wait-lists or financial barriers. We need a national mental health wait-time strategy to ensure people can access support in a timely way. We need to break down the financial barriers that keep people from getting the care they need.
A cornerstone of the Liberals' promises on mental health was to establish a new permanent transfer to the provinces and territories to expand publicly funded mental health care and address backlogs. Canadians were told that an initial investment of $4.5 billion over five years would be made in this country through the Canada mental health transfer by the Liberals. Here we are a year later with no idea of when this money will get out the door. When the government announced its intention to establish a $10-a-day child care program, there were deals with all the provinces and territories in place within a year. Meanwhile, the Canada mental health transfer was nowhere to be found in the 2022 budget, and there has been no transparency on when this much-needed investment will be made.
That is why I tabled Motion No. 67, to encourage the government to act without delay in creating this transfer and to take the steps needed to ensure mental health is put on an equal footing in our universal public health care system.
I am going to read the text of Motion No. 67, as it reflects what mental health stakeholders have been telling us and calling for. It states:
That
(a) the House recognize that,
(i) Canada is experiencing a mental health and substance use crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,
(ii) too many Canadians are unable to access mental health or substance use supports in a timely manner,
(iii) lack of access to community-based mental health and substance use services increases demands on hospital emergency rooms and primary care providers,
(iv) untreated or inadequately treated mental illness carries significant social and economic costs; and
(b) in the opinion of the House, the government should:
(i) without delay develop legislation that will enshrine in law parity between physical and mental health in Canada’s universal public healthcare system, ensure timely access to evidence-based, culturally appropriate, publicly funded mental health and substance use services beyond hospital and physician settings, recognize the importance of investing in the social determinants of health, mental health promotion, and mental illness prevention, and include national performance standards and accountabilities for mental health and substance use services,
(ii) without delay establish the Canada mental health transfer to sustainably fund the provision of mental health and substance use services and disburse an initial investment of $4.5 billion to the provinces and territories,
(iii) report to Parliament annually on progress towards achieving national performance standards for mental health and substance use services.
As we try to recover from the COVID–19 pandemic and navigate uncertain economic times, mental health cannot wait. Therefore, I ask the government when it will follow through on its promises on mental health and deliver help to Canadians who are struggling.
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- May/19/22 7:36:49 p.m.
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Madam Chair, here is a quote. It is something the minister wrote in the PSPC 2022-23 departmental plan. It says:
Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting the health and safety of Canadians remains a priority for the Government of Canada. PSPC will continue to play a central role in our response by procuring critical supplies, including vaccines, tests and therapeutics.
It has now been over six years since British Columbia declared a public health emergency. Is the health and safety of some Canadians, like people who use drugs, not a priority for the government? Why has PSPC not played a central role in responding to this crisis?
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- May/19/22 4:49:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is a really important issue and we are hearing from many people in my riding. Certainly, we believe that health measures should be informed by health science and not politics.
We heard Dr. Tam in March, stating that a full re-evaluation of Canada's pandemic measures would be done and that she would report back to Canadians. We are at the end of May. People have concerns. Trust in public health measures requires explaining the arguments and sharing the evidence they are based on.
For two years, the government was in front of Canadians, answering questions. We cannot find it now. It is not in front of Canadians, answering questions about this. To have trust, the government needs to be fully transparent with Canadians with the evidence behind any of the remaining health measures.
Does my colleague not agree that Liberals are failing to answer the questions of Canadians? They need to come forward quickly to ensure that there is trust in Canadians.
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Madam Speaker, maybe my colleague, the government House leader, could speak about the sense of urgency. Cultural workers and artists suffered the most under the pandemic. Many of them could not operate at all for two years, and many of them could not even access the programs that were offered to them. When people have zero revenue coming in, the wage subsidy does not help them, nor the rent assistance program. The sense of urgency is real.
In the meantime, the big web giants had record profits. They took all the gas out. There was a massive economic leakage happening in our country. Maybe the House leader could talk about how critical it is that we plug the economic leakage to the big web giants and that we get to this work rapidly and quickly and get this to committee.
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- May/3/22 1:55:59 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, thank you, I really appreciate that.
In addition to the toxic drug supply crisis, Canada is experiencing a broader mental health crisis as we deal with the impacts of two years of the pandemic. COVID-19 highlighted what many of us already knew, which is that our mental health care system is woefully underfunded. The Liberal government committed, in its election campaign, to establish a mental health transfer with an initial commitment of $4.5 billion over five years. However, we have yet to see any concrete action or fulfilling of that promise to make it a reality.
We know that mental health is health, and Canadians deserve to be able to access the mental health supports they need without worrying about barriers such as cost or availability. This week is Mental Health Week in Canada. I ask my colleague this. Is this one thing that we could all unite behind as parties, and have empathy for those who need support for mental health? When will the government be moving forward with the transfer?
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- May/2/22 11:44:02 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Madam Speaker, it is a huge honour to rise tonight to speak to the fall economic update.
Today, the families and friends of 20 Canadians will get the life-changing news that their loved one has died because of a toxic drug poisoning. Tomorrow, the families and friends of another 20 Canadians will get the same news, and again the next day and the next day.
The expert task force on substance use established by Health Canada accurately described what we are facing when it said:
The war on drugs has led to what ends up looking like a war on people who use drugs. People are dying every day, and the situation in Canada, already particularly deadly, is getting worse, not better. Canada has the fastest growing rate of overdose mortality in the world.
This is from the government's own expert task force.
The pandemic has accelerated the toxic drug supply crisis and there is no end in sight. The Public Health Agency of Canada, in its most recent modelling, predicted that opioid-related deaths will remain high until June and may even increase, yet the government has refused to take the urgent actions needed to stop the losses, including making investments, at the scale that this crisis requires, in addressing the root causes of problematic substance use, education and prevention, harm reduction and safer supply, and treatment on demand and recovery services.
The fall economic update failed to even acknowledge the public health emergency that has been devastating communities for years, and the 2022 budget added a mere $100 million over three years to be spread across the country. That is 10 provinces and three territories. The stigma is not just in policy, nor just in the laws in this country. It is in the amount of money the government spends to tackle this crisis.
The toxic drug supply crisis, which has arisen as a direct result of the failed war on drugs, is not just costing lives; it is costing significant amounts of money to all levels of government. Members have heard me say repeatedly in the House that this is a health and human rights issue, but this is also an economic issue.
The expert task force wrote about the financial burden of the criminalized approach to drugs on the health and criminal justice system. Its report said:
Criminalization leads to higher drug-related health costs because it keeps people who use drugs away from prevention and early treatment health services due to fear of being arrested, labelled, or outed.
“Criminalization drives people underground and means that people are less likely to seek assistance, or have difficulties if they try to obtain assistance.”
Because criminalization pushes people who use drugs to rely on an illegal, often contaminated drug supply, it is also responsible for high hospitalization costs.
“23,240 opioid-related and 10,518 stimulant-related poisoning hospitalizations occurred from January 2016 to September 2020 in Canada (excluding Quebec).”
In its second report, the expert task force put it bluntly, saying, “Current policies are currently costing Canada huge amounts. In—”
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- Mar/23/22 4:52:17 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-8
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his respectful decorum in the House and for his speech.
I have concerns about some of the things he said in his speech. Of course, we do not agree on many things, but he talked about the NDP fighting for and getting supports for workers throughout the pandemic, which is something we are proud and honoured to have fought for. We did want more provisions and more guidelines so that big corporations did not potentially take profits and then pay shareholders, and that is something we did rail against.
The Conservatives cannot point to anything they fought for through the pandemic for workers or for people who struggled throughout the pandemic. We heard them yesterday when they voted against our motion to tax big corporations such as big oil to make sure there was revenue for things like a dental program, but we know they do not support a dental program. They actually do not believe that Canadians need a dental program.
Does my colleague not believe that the super-wealthy who profited from the pandemic should be paying more in taxes to pay their fair share and contribute to supporting important programs like dental care?
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked passionately about the need to support seniors. Clearly this is an urgent situation. These are the most vulnerable seniors in our country that the government has gone after with clawbacks. I really want to thank the member for North Island—Powell River for the important work she did on pressuring the government to respond to this situation.
Does my colleague agree that the government is paying for the pandemic off the backs of poor Canadians by going after seniors in this circumstance? Does she agree that instead it should be going after the billionaires and the big corporations that have profited from the pandemic?
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