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Doug Mackie
View Doug Mackie Profile
Doug Mackie
2021-06-22 16:44
Do I have to start off with a joke, or is that okay?
Thank you for the opportunity to be a witness today.
Men's Sheds is a volunteer-based organization that currently has 39 sheds, or groups of men, in Canada. It's part of a worldwide movement of over 2,200 sheds located in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Ireland, the U.S.A., Kenya, Iceland and other countries, as well as Canada. Men's Sheds opened in North America in 2010 here in Winnipeg.
Men's Sheds is a unique volunteer grassroots organization run by men for men. The activities and projects are determined by the men themselves within their sheds, not from a central office. The main goal of a men's shed is to offer a safe, convenient place for men to gather, socialize, enjoy camaraderie and participate in individual projects or group projects while working shoulder to shoulder.
When a man retires, he loses structure in his life, may leave his most important social contacts at work and loses meaning in his life. Senior centres do not fill the gap. The membership of most senior centres is made up of 80% women and 20% men. Men can be hesitant to seek help. There are no other programs in Canada just for men and run by men.
Men's sheds combat loneliness, isolation, anxiety and depression in men. The Men's Sheds Association is not a self-help group. The Canadian Men's Sheds Association receives no federal funding, or even provincial funding, unless it's on a sporadic basis. This is very much unlike the Men's Sheds programs in the U.K., Ireland and Australia. The benefit of a men's shed is the improved emotional well-being or mental health of the men involved, thus improving the lives of the men, their families and the communities in which they live.
This is respectfully submitted.
Thank you.
Violaine Guerin
View Violaine Guerin Profile
Violaine Guerin
2021-06-22 16:46
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The mission of the Conseil régional de développement social des Laurentides is to increase and support the capacity for community action in social development in the Laurentides region. Its members come from different sectors working with vulnerable people, including seniors.
The measures adopted during the pandemic have had a profound impact on the mental health of seniors, and we have seen an increase in the incidence of psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and post-traumatic stress.
The physical and psychological effects on older adults will likely continue after the pandemic and beyond the time when physical distancing measures remain in place. To minimize the negative impacts, it is appropriate to ensure that visiting policies in residential facilities, hospitals and hospices balance the need to protect others with the need of the residents or patients to see family and to socialize.
It would also be appropriate to study and review how and when we involve older adults across the country, to have them participate more in making decisions and developing policies that affect them. Social participation helps to protect the health of older adults. Those who participate have better cognitive abilities. While physical distancing measures are intended to protect the health of vulnerable people, the same measures also lead to social isolation, which in turn leads to the deterioration of mental health, physical health and cognitive abilities.
Elderly people who have felt they were isolated during the pandemic have tended to engage in behaviours that are detrimental to their health. In addition, the disruption of many community services and home visits due to the pandemic has had a significant impact on the health of older adults who rely on the services.
The pandemic has also given rise to more ageist messages and discrimination against older adults. These messages reaffirm a preconceived perception that older adults are vulnerable people whose lives are less valuable than those of younger people. [Technical difficulty], perceiving older adults as a homogenous group undermines their social identity, which makes them more susceptible to discrimination and exclusion, and fails to adequately portray their contribution to society or their resilience in the face of crisis. These messages may lead to a number of social consequences, such as discrimination against older workers and retirees looking to return to the workforce after the pandemic.
Internalizing ageist messages could also have significant consequences on older adults, such as a loss of self-esteem and a loss of a sense of purpose in society.
It is therefore important to use non-stigmatizing language to describe older people, to avoid stereotypes, and to avoid labelling all older people as frail and vulnerable. We should also refrain from referring to older people in words that have negative connotations and that convey prejudice. Intergenerational exchanges should be encouraged to increase solidarity between the generations and to fight prejudice. Awareness campaigns should also be developed to combat ageism.
Fraud and abuse in all their forms have increased during the pandemic. Seniors have been targeted at a time when they are more vulnerable and anxious. They need the right tools to be as informed as possible about the various scams and frauds to which they could fall victim. It is therefore appropriate to strengthen prevention and protection services for seniors against all forms of violence, abuse and fraud. Seniors should also be informed, educated, made aware and equipped so that they know that those problems exist.
The pandemic has come with its own set of challenges and has forced us to adapt very quickly to new technologies. However, the shift to virtual platforms socially excludes the elderly and places them at a lower level. Many older adults share a similar level of digital literacy, and few have been attending virtual gatherings during the pandemic. We are seeing deep inequalities in this group's social participation virtually, because it further excludes low-income seniors with lower levels of education, as well as those with underlying medical conditions.
The situation has widened the digital divide, especially for seniors living in rural areas where Internet access is still lacking, and for the most vulnerable seniors who cannot afford to buy the technology.
Seniors and their caregivers must therefore be helped to have access to digital communication tools or other ways of keeping in touch with family and social networks when actual travel is limited. We should also make it possible for older adults to participate in lifelong learning programs and improve their access to information and communication technologies.
This is not new: seniors want to remain in their homes as long as possible. Given what we have experienced during the pandemic, with many deaths in various types of housing for seniors, seniors are even more resolved to remain in their private homes. Governments will have to look at concrete solutions to help seniors stay in their homes. Home-based services will need to be more readily available, so that they can remain in those homes under the best possible conditions.
The shortage of affordable, adaptable and accessible housing is also a growing problem. This sometimes leads seniors to relocate and move closer to larger urban centres so they have access to housing that is more affordable and closer to amenities. It would therefore be advisable to increase mobile services to ensure access to more isolated seniors, or those with limited mobility, so their needs can be assessed and support provided.
It would also be advisable to ensure that appropriate care services are always available for older adults. These include mental health services and palliative and geriatric care. They also include support for unpaid caregivers who provide care in the home and community, as well as paid social workers who provide home care and institutional care.
We also need to ensure that community services and assistance to older adults, including social and legal services, are maintained despite physical distancing restrictions.
We must recognize the critical role of family caregivers and enable them to play that role with the necessary tools.
We suggest that programs be put in place to foster and support home care.
In addition, more affordable and accessible community housing for seniors is needed so that they can continue to live in a safe environment.
According to the market basket measure, in the Laurentides region, 6.3% of seniors aged 65 and over fall below the low income threshold, meaning that 5,930 individuals are in precarious situations. It's important that we gain expertise and be more vigilant with respect to the living and employment conditions of people aged 55 and over by ensuring that basic needs are covered and that they do not fall into the poverty level after they retire.
We need to make it a priority to ensure the right to a basic quality of life for everyone, in retirement as in an entire lifespan.
The social participation of seniors is no longer in question. The aging population certainly brings its own set of challenges—
View Han Dong Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Chair.
Mr. Mackie, I really enjoyed your jokes in the beginning. I took notes. I'm going to share them with my kids and we're going to have a laugh.
Thank you very much for telling the committee a bit more about Men's Sheds projects. I know some Men's Sheds projects across the country have received New Horizons for Seniors program funding and also the special COVID-19 additional funding that was announced and implemented, which is worth, I believe, $20 million.
It's very important to support projects like this. You're right about the belief in society that men have trouble expressing how they feel or seeking help when they face mental health challenges. We know mental health challenges may lead to serious physical harm. I remember a report by CAMH indicating that over 75% of serious physical harm involved men.
In your opinion, how can these projects or peer support groups combat stigma around mental health, especially when it comes to men in Canada?
Doug Mackie
View Doug Mackie Profile
Doug Mackie
2021-06-22 17:04
Thanks, Mr. Dong, for your question.
On your first comment about New Horizons for Seniors, it doesn't work on a national basis. Other than the one big project every five years.... I have a New Horizons for Seniors grant that ends at the end of this month. There are no Men's Sheds in Saskatchewan, but I cannot take any of the money that I have—and I will expend it all—and go to Saskatchewan to help them open up a Men's Shed. New Horizons for Seniors is provincially mandated. It's to one province. It does not go across provinces. With our kind of situation, I need some funding to be able to go across provinces.
The second thing is that I'd like all of you to look at the New Horizons for Seniors priority 3. Why do I say number 3? I'm going to read only part of it. It says, “Combatting ageism, celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion”. Then it says, “particularly members of underrepresented or underserved groups including but not limited to: women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, members of racialized and newcomer groups, and members of the LGBTQ2+ communities”.
I want you to note that I can find no place within New Horizons for Seniors with any mention of programs or opportunities for men, period.
View Han Dong Profile
Lib. (ON)
I appreciate that input.
You mentioned different levels of government needing to work together to provide that support. In your opinion, how does that look in terms of creating more outreach initiatives from the government to support peer-to-peer support groups?
Doug Mackie
View Doug Mackie Profile
Doug Mackie
2021-06-22 17:06
Again, it's interesting. We started Men's Sheds here in Winnipeg. It's now spread throughout B.C. and somewhat around Alberta, but nowhere east of Montreal. How do we start supporting it, or how do I, as an individual? I live on a fixed income. I'm 80 years old. How do I reach out to those people or get a program to those Men's Sheds or possible groups of men in other communities? It's time-consuming and it's a process. I certainly have enjoyed the challenge over the years. It gets me up in the morning.
If there was funding that would allow Men's Sheds to do their outreach outside of an individual province, that would be of assistance. If there was potential funding—and we'd have to be careful here—for a one-person advocate or manager on a national level, I think that has some merit.
We also need to try to work with Canadian mental health associations wherever we can. It's interesting that CMHA has different priorities depending on where they are. Recently I gave a Zoom meeting instruction on how to open up a Men's Shed to the rural part of the Alberta division of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
View Jenny Kwan Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you very much. That's very helpful.
With respect to the list of essential reading that was appended to your submission, you included the 2018 report by the Council of Canadian Academies' expert panel on medical assistance in dying. In that report, it was mentioned that the early planning meetings, particularly in the section dealing with mental disorder as the sole underlying—
View Jenny Kwan Profile
NDP (BC)
With respect to that issue, can you provide more details for the committee on some of the challenging areas identified by the working group, where there were disagreements? Can you expand on that a bit for the committee's benefit?
Jocelyn Downie
View Jocelyn Downie Profile
Jocelyn Downie
2021-06-21 19:13
Well, it's phase two, so you will be coming back to this. That's why I didn't go into it in my actual remarks. Concerns that have been expressed about mental illness—debates that were held in the process of the Council of Canadian Academies—relate to “irremediably”. Can you assess capacity? Is there discrimination against persons with mental disorders if you don't allow them to have access? All those issues were canvassed.
They're also in Truchon. Everything was tested in the Truchon case. All of these concerns about mental disorders were tested in the Truchon case.
View Tony Van Bynen Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
In my community of Newmarket—Aurora, our local hospital accommodates over 1.2 million people, and at the very beginning of this outbreak, I know that there was a lot of stress in terms of finding the resources that they needed, and I was certainly happy to see that the government stepped up and provided what was required.
We've also been talking about mental health and the impacts of the pandemic on Canadians' health throughout the past year and the role the federal government has been able to play in getting Canadians free, accessible mental health resources. I know that budget 2021 extends further funding for Wellness Together in the budget 2021-22 year, and in the supplementary estimates (A) there's additional funding for the Kids Help Phone.
Why do you think it's important to keep these mental health supports available to Canadians, even as we return to the new normal life?
View Patty Hajdu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much for the question.
I had an opportunity to meet with the volunteers at the Kids Help Phone just this week. What an enormous piece of work they're doing for Canadians. They're responding to calls from people, often young people but actually people of every age, across the country. We knew early on that we needed to support that work.
Wellness Together also grew out of a sense that the pandemic was going to create such change in Canadians' lives that it would exacerbate mental health conditions and put people in distress at all hours of the day or night. We wanted to make sure that no matter what a Canadian's circumstance, no matter what a person's circumstance in this country, they would have access to that service.
We'll be extending these services for another year. We know that, first, we're not out of this yet, and second, as people return to their lives, many things have changed. People have suffered tremendously. There's been enormous sacrifice, some that we know and some that we don't know. People's routines have been disrupted. Their relationships have been disrupted. Their work settings have been disrupted. We know that Canadians will continue to need support for some time to come.
This is our contribution to ensuring that Canadians have that help when they need it, through emergency helplines but also through the Wellness Together portal that helps connect people to the help they need, when they need it and in the language they need it.
View Neil Ellis Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Neil Ellis Profile
2021-06-15 16:52
Thank you for that answer.
At the end of his testimony, Mr. Leblanc touched on mental health for farmers.
I'd like to ask this question to the dairy farmers, and this is coming, I guess, even from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Do you believe that Bill C-205 addresses critical issues such as mental health?
David Wiens
View David Wiens Profile
David Wiens
2021-06-15 16:53
Well, it's a huge concern for us, obviously, because we feel the stress of people coming onto the farm. One of the things we see where some strengthening is needed is that there should be the requirement to have knowledge of what they're doing, or recklessness.... Those things should be removed, because to plead ignorance is unacceptable. Because of the damage it causes, there is huge stress on farms. We feel extremely vulnerable. To have people come onto the farm and simply claim ignorance and help to destroy the animals on the farm is simply unacceptable.
View Warren Steinley Profile
CPC (SK)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much to the poultry producers and the Dairy Farmers of Canada for being here.
First I want to go on record that the Conservative Party believes it is not the farmer's job to make sure that people don't come on their property. They're doing a great job with the signage and ensuring that people know where property lines are. Sometimes activists don't listen to signs. I don't think it's the farmers' fault when people trespass on their property. I just want to make sure that people realize the Conservatives stand with those farmers.
I'm going to be very clear. I think some of my colleagues have danced around this, asking the same question and hoping they get a different answer.
I'll ask the dairy farmers first and then the poultry farmers: Do you believe that this bill will help alleviate some of the fears and stresses that are put on farmers because of these activist activities?
David Wiens
View David Wiens Profile
David Wiens
2021-06-15 17:10
I think it will go a long way towards addressing some of those concerns. Right now, like I said earlier, we're extremely vulnerable. We feel like we have very, very little control about who comes onto the property and what they do.
Pierre Lampron
View Pierre Lampron Profile
Pierre Lampron
2021-06-15 17:11
I want to make clear that Bill C‑205 is a very important step to give farmers long-term peace of mind. As was mentioned, this is long awaited. To feed people, we need healthy animals, and this bill helps us keep animals healthy.
Tom Littlewood
View Tom Littlewood Profile
Tom Littlewood
2021-06-11 13:18
Thanks, Barb.
Regarding COVID-19 and its effect on mental health, overdoses, self-harm and psychosis incidents have increased 50% with our youth clients. We serve about 300 clients a year currently, and that is about to double. Hospitalizations, because of this, cost $1,500 to $2,500 a day and up.
Anxiety and depression are widespread. These mental health issues paralyze young people, causing many to retreat and hide in their single-room occupancy, SRO suites, or basement suites.
The opioid crisis has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We predict that the situation will only get worse, as there are thousands of young people in line to become the next wave of addiction to hit our streets.
Every year about 1,000 youth age out of care in British Columbia, and a further 1,000 hit the streets, running away from dysfunctional homes. Over 60% of these youths aging out of foster care will descend into entrenched addiction to numb their psychological pain.
However, there is a critical period between the ages of 15 and 25, when these young people usually ask for help. If trauma-informed therapy is provided to them for free and without a waiting list, up to 75% of these youth will respond and achieve success in school, work, recovery, housing and job-skills training. They can be diverted from the path towards homelessness, entrenched addiction, overdose and suicide and on towards lives they will enjoy living.
The initial effects of past trauma, which include physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, poverty and intergenerational trauma experienced by our indigenous clients, are normally expressed, to begin with, as anxiety, depression, eating and sleeping disorders, and self-medicating behaviour.
Our therapeutic intervention of four months of trauma-informed counselling costs approximately $2,500. Once the youth descends into entrenched addiction, it costs the community millions of dollars when police services, first responders, hospitals, corrections system, etc., are factored in. This does not even begin to take into account what the addict has to steal, or the sex acts they have to perform in order to get the money to buy the drugs they need.
Harm prevention, specifically trauma-informed therapy, can divert a youth's path away from addiction and homelessness, which not only saves valuable lives but saves millions of dollars in costs to the community.
Trauma-informed recovery is a new idea, and it's still controversial. Rather than the 12-step abstinence recovery programs, which are not best practices with youth, especially regarding opioid addiction, trauma-informed recovery involves a doctor, a therapist and a client agreeing to a contract whereby the physician prescribes an opioid replacement for the client while the client is undergoing trauma counselling.
When working with a therapist, typically over a period of four months, the client first learns self-regulation techniques. This is followed by the counselling trauma work, to help youth gain insight into their past trauma.
Once the trauma work is complete, the client has no need to self-medicate for the psychological pain, and this is when the physician steps in to provide something like an opioid replacement of Suboxone to help them come down without the drug sickness.
This approach is new and controversial, but it is becoming the best-practice model for young people with opioid addiction. Using prescribed stimulants as a replacement for street drugs like crack or meth is also being explored.
The side effect of the opioid crisis and the overdose crisis is the growing number of permanent brain damage situations caused when someone is brought back using Narcan or Naloxone. Some youth brag about how many times they have recovered using Naloxone; however, as therapists we can see the gradual deterioration of cognitive function after multiple applications of Naloxone over multiple overdoses.
A practical harm prevention idea that you can take from this is a CERB forgiveness program for young people who engage in recovery, education, work or training for a year. The money is gone; it's not going to be recovered. These kids don't have this, but it will create an insurmountable obstacle for these young people and cause thousands to give up and go underground to the street, speeding up the path to addiction and homelessness. I have had a youth end their life by suicide when faced with $1,000 in transit fines, which come due when they are about to get their first driver's licence. Imagine the chaos we're going to find when thousands are asked to repay the thousands of dollars they received from CERB fraudulently.
In summary, our goal is to get ahead of the curve of both COVID-19 and the opioid crisis by employing harm-prevention strategies of trauma-informed therapy, training and recovery.
Thank you.
Ansar Ahmed
View Ansar Ahmed Profile
Ansar Ahmed
2021-06-11 14:12
Thank you, Chairman McKinnon, and thank you, Vice-Chairs Rempel Garner and Thériault, for the opportunity to speak to the committee today.
I'm pleased to be here today representing Jacobs Engineering. First of all, on behalf of all of us at Jacobs, I'd like to extend our deepest condolences to the families of the nearly 26,000 Canadians who have lost their lives during this pandemic.
As engineers and architects, we approach problems from a very simple perspective of an unbiased lens. We examine the causes, and we identify what needs to be done differently in order to achieve more favourable outcomes in the future.
I'd like to focus my remarks today on the impact of COVID-19 in our long-term care homes.
In January, Jacobs hosted an industry round table to examine how the built environment—the actual interior and physical space—may have contributed to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 within our long-term care homes. The round table report outlined a series of nine recommendations, and I'd like to speak to two of them today.
Many jurisdictions have design standards for long-term care homes that have not been updated for years, and in some cases decades. In homes designed to those outdated standards, residents were confined, for the most part, to their rooms. They had little, if any, physical or social interaction with others, simply because the facility was not designed, or improved over the years, to meet the challenges of containing the spread of COVID-19.
It was acknowledged in the round table that the built environment is as important an element of health care as any other medical or clinical intervention. There needs to be a legislated framework that mandates regular updates to design standards, so the built environment within our long-term care homes keeps pace with the latest clinical research on caring for those with physical or cognitive impairments.
A second recommendation involved evidence-based decision-making and value-based procurements. Following the January round table, Jacobs and the Ontario Association of Architects, in consultation with the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, have funded a research study by the University of Toronto’s Centre for Design + Health Innovation to conduct performance assessments of long-term care homes. This is the type of experiential data that governments need to have access to in order to ensure they are making the right investments in the right areas at the right time.
The findings of such work must become the basis for value-based procurement. In a sector as sensitive as long-term care, seeking out the lowest-cost and technically compliant bids should not be the benchmark we are striving to achieve. Rather, it should be about value creation in design, construction, maintenance and operations to help secure the best outcome for our most vulnerable citizens.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged governments at all levels to respond with urgency to its devastating outcomes, including the loss of over 15,000 lives in long-term care homes. In examining the root causes of these losses, it's important to recognize the pre-existence of structural and systemic vulnerabilities that heightened the risk of such outcomes occurring in our long-term care homes.
To make the most of proposed investments in long-term care, it's vital that governments first identify and, through updated standards and guidelines, resolve those structural and systemic vulnerabilities. Without this first critical step, we miss an important opportunity to ensure the best results for the investment of public funds.
If I had three recommendations to make, they would be that governments at all levels need to come together: first, to establish grant-based funding programs to vigorously re-engage Canada in public health research and development; second, to activate and mobilize Canada’s manufacturing sector to produce vast supplies of PPE and other mission-critical supplies and equipment; and lastly, to mandate regular updates to design and operating standards governing long-term care homes, to ensure these remain resilient places of care for our most vulnerable citizens.
In closing, I'd like to make one last observation with respect to mental health. This pandemic has raised awareness of the importance of mental health. As we emerge from this pandemic, it's my sincere hope we do not lose the momentum that has been created, and that the attention drawn to mental health does not fade away. All levels of government have a role to play in ensuring that hospitals across the country have access to stable and long-term funding for mental health programs, and that local non-profit organizations, delivering invaluable intervention programs, similarly have access to predictable and long-term government funding and support.
Thank you very much for your time and attention today.
View Larry Maguire Profile
CPC (MB)
Mr. Ahmed, I will quickly move to you.
In regard to not losing ground on mental health because of COVID, you mentioned the support of the private sector in developing and funding mental health. What do you think the private sector's role should be in that? I know you want to keep all governments working together. Where does that fit in?
Ansar Ahmed
View Ansar Ahmed Profile
Ansar Ahmed
2021-06-11 14:46
There's a small organization here in my hometown of Newmarket called Inn From the Cold. I've seen the tremendous work that they're doing first-hand, primarily through the support of volunteers, to try to support those suffering from mental health, homelessness and other issues. I think there is definitely a role for government to play in providing those non-profit organization some line to stable, long-term funding, so that they can continue to provide these invaluable services.
The other thing is that if we don't do that early intervention in terms of those mental health programs, then by and large we're going to end up paying a price through other social services, the justice system or other areas. It behooves us as a society to make sure we do that early intervention.
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Kwe kwe. Unnusakkut. Tansi. Hello.
Hello.
Before I begin, I want to acknowledge that in Ottawa, I'm on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
First and foremost, I do want to say a few words for the communities, families and friends impacted by the tragic news of the children whose remains were recently found at the former Kamloops residential school located on the traditional territory of the Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc people.
I'd like to thank the members for their continued advocacy and echoing indigenous voices here in Parliament.
While this discovery has shocked and disturbed the nation, for indigenous peoples across the country, these findings are deeply painful, traumatizing and triggering, although they are not surprising, particularly for the indigenous peoples who have known this truth for far too long.
Our thoughts remain with the families and communities impacted not only by this discovery but by the residential school system. It is essential that we respect and continue to respect the privacy, space and mourning period of those communities that are collecting their thoughts and putting together their protocols as to how to honour these children.
We recognize that there is a continuing need for psychological wellness services associated with childhood and intergenerational trauma. We will continue to work with our partners and the communities, first and foremost to ensure adequate access to appropriate services.
The survivors and the families affected by the indigenous residential schools system have access, among other things, to the national Indian residential schools crisis line if they need it. The Indian residential schools resolution health support program also offers access to elders, to traditional healers and to other appropriate forms of cultural and emotional support, as well as to professional mental health counselling.
In addition, all indigenous peoples can access the hope for wellness help line, online or by phone, to get help. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are offering additional support so that indigenous communities can adapt and broaden mental health services.
We also recently announced $597.6 million over three years for a mental health and wellness strategy based, of course, on the distinct characteristics of the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis Nation. The strategy includes continuing support for former residential schools students and their families. It will be based on existing competencies and will help to fill gaps and respond to the existing, emerging and future needs of indigenous communities.
I'm here today to answer your questions on the supplementary estimates (A) for 2021-22 and to provide you with an update on continuing efforts to confront the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. I will also answer any other questions that the committee chooses.
For this year, the total authority will be $18.9 billion, which reflects a net increase of $5.4 billion. This includes support for initiatives such as funding for COVID-19 responses, including, notably, $760.7 million for the indigenous community support fund that has been so welcomed, $64 million for the continuation of public health responses in indigenous communities and $332.8 million for indigenous communities affected by disruptions to their revenue due to COVID-19, which we announced, made official and launched yesterday.
The net increase for the supplementary estimates (A) also includes $1.2 billion for out-of-court settlements to advance Canada's overall commitment to reconciliation by paving the way to a more respectful and constructive relationship with indigenous peoples.
It also includes $1.1 billion for child and family services to support a proactive agreement on a non-compliance motion before the CHRT. The funding is crucial. Since the CHRT issued its first order for Canada to cease its discriminatory practices in 2016, we have been working with first nations leaders and partners to implement the tribunal's orders, and we are in compliance. The $1.1 billion will go to communities that are engaged in activities that prevent the apprehension of kids and contribute to the transformation of the system that has been so broken.
Let me be clear once again. We share the same goal: First nations children historically harmed by the child welfare system will receive fair, just and equitable compensation. The government is not questioning or challenging the notion that compensation should be awarded to first nations children who were harmed by the historical discrimination and underfunding of the child welfare system. The question is not whether we compensate; it is a question of doing so in a way that is fair, equitable and inclusive of those directly impacted.
To this end, we have already consented to certification of the consolidated class action filed in the Federal Court by the Assembly of First Nations and Councillor Xavier Moushoom regarding the same children who were harmed by the system, as contemplated by the CHRT. Furthermore, we are currently in mediation with the partners, but as is set out in the mediation agreement, those discussions will remain confidential out of respect.
We remain committed to providing first nations children access to the necessary supports and services in partnership with indigenous peoples. To that effect, it's important to note that 820,000 claims under Jordan's principle have been processed since 2016, which represents close to $2 billion in funding.
Most notably, in January 2020, An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families came into force. It is key to this conversation in transforming the relationship, responding to the calls to action and setting a new way forward. Indigenous governments and communities have always had the inherent right to decide things that people like me take for granted; that is, what is best for their children, their families and their communities. The act provides a path for them to fully exercise and lift up that jurisdiction.
As a result of this work led by indigenous communities, two indigenous laws have now come into force under the federal law, the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations law in Ontario and the Cowessess First Nation Miyo Pimatisowin Act in Saskatchewan. In each of these communities, children will have greater opportunity to grow up and thrive immersed in their culture and surrounded by loved ones.
I will now move on to an update on COVID-19.
Throughout the pandemic, and still today, Indigenous Services Canada has been aware of the particular vulnerability of indigenous communities to the virus.
From the outset, we knew that immediate, decisive measures were necessary to protect the communities as best we could. Our absolute priority was the safety, health and well-being of the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis.
However, without the dedication and determination of all of the leaders of those communities, none of that would have been possible. I want to thank them for their continuous work over the last year, in particular in encouraging the members of their communities to get vaccinated.
With respect to vaccine roll-out, as of June 7, 687 indigenous communities had campaigns underway. In total, that corresponds to 540,581 doses administered, including first and second doses.
This means that 41% of eligible people aged 12 and over in the communities or living in the territories have received two doses of the vaccine. This is crucial in the communities where the population is predominantly young.
In addition, 80% of people have received a first dose, and if we consider those aged 12 and over, we are talking about 72%. So this is tremendous progress.
With respect to the number of cases, as of June 9, in First Nations communities, we are aware of 761 active cases, which is, fortunately, a decline from the previous week. That brings us now to just about 30,568 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those, 29,459 people have recovered, and, tragically, 348 others have died.
I see that perhaps that you're flagging me, Bob, or do I have a couple of minutes?
View Jaime Battiste Profile
Lib. (NS)
Thank you for joining us, Minister.
Sitting here listening to the questions, I can't help but reflect. I've been in first nation advocacy and leadership for 20 years, and I remember a time when all of the issues related to indigenous people were under one minister. Now we have two, and you could add Minister Vandal as a third. I couldn't imagine a time as we progress where the fact that we have two ministers would not, to me, be a great thing and a good thing moving forward in terms of making sure that we have a lot of different people looking at the important issues of indigenous people in Canada.
I also want to thank you for your speech in the House during the debate on how we move forward past the findings out in the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the 215 children's bodies. I thought it was very powerful when you spoke the names. I did some smudging in my house when you were talking about those names, and I really thought that was powerful.
All across the country, we have communities grieving, and we have communities triggered by the findings. In my community, we have a crisis centre, Eskasoni crisis centre, and they've been having a sacred fire outside and helping survivors who need to talk and helping people. It really shows the importance of and reason for continuing to fund mental health.
I want to get a sense from you. Can you speak to the need and some of the supports that we're offering for mental health in first nations communities across Canada?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Yes, and thanks for that comment, MP Battiste. Those names were in the TRC report, but I thought, given the context, they should be read into the record of the House of Commons so that they will always be remembered. I think there are more names to come, and that's, I think, what's gripped the entire country, including your community, and really triggered a number of people. Some of the most poignant testimony I've heard has been from those people who are not prepared to speak about these things. They haven't cried since they were 15. It's a recurring theme that I've heard when communities reach out and say they are not ready for this, but will we be there when they are? The answer is yes, and for those who are ready and who want to accelerate things, we will be there.
What we haven't gauged completely,...although my team that's here today is reaching out to communities to get a sense of what mental health needs are. Obviously, there are the mental health needs that I highlighted in my introduction, and obviously a phone line, as important as it is, is not sufficient. This is magnified as well by what we've seen through COVID, which is an increased stress on indigenous communities' mental health.
One of the budget items that was announced in budget 2021 was over $500 million for mental health supports. We don't do very well as a government or as a country in talking about mental health. Some of us who are probably best to speak about it don't, and those who are not so good do, and I'm the latter, but that is my job. I think it is important to recognize that everyone in the country is hurting, and even long after some of the news stories have died down, people will remain hurt and triggered, along with feeling the effects of intergenerational trauma.
For the immediacy of the communities in question, we've deployed additional mental health supports and perimeter security, as you can imagine. We're also working with FNHA. As you know, it's first in class in B.C. and is doing some great work with health resources in communities.
The mental health support is yet to be fully understood and engaged as it relates to the particular events that have happened in the last two weeks, but we're getting a sense of that, and it is very important and again, magnified by COVID.
View Jaime Battiste Profile
Lib. (NS)
Minister, I don't have a lot of time, so I'll try to be brief with this question. The Eskasoni crisis centre in my community has been looking for funding. I'm not asking for funding, but do you feel the best approaches towards mental health in communities are the ones that are community-based and culturally relevant and that promote the languages in the various first nations across Canada?
Please answer in 30 seconds. Thank you.
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Absolutely. I think that, as we've seen, it's been a learning lesson with proof points. I think that's been said to us often and has been advocated and is self-evident for indigenous communities and less self-evident for federal government bodies. What we've seen through COVID are proof points, such as on-the-land learning and on-the-land isolation for physical health and mental health and the proven tangible results. I think there's something to learn from this COVID epidemic in how we can support local knowledge for protecting their own people, particularly as it relates to mental health. Obviously, that is no excuse for the federal government stepping back when there is a need, but it is a further reminder that we should do so in partnership and not with Ottawa in a top-down position.
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
We were talking earlier about the discovery of the remains of 215 children in Kamloops. We are very well aware that more discoveries may be made in other Canadian provinces.
Do you have an idea of what you can do to help the communities that are grieving and that are having mental health problems right now, as you explained earlier?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Yes, absolutely.
As you said, this is the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada plainly shows that there could be more than 3,000 or 4,000 persons who have disappeared. It could be considerably more, as Senator Sinclair recently said.
We will be here for the communities.
As I said in English, not all communities are ready. There are elders who have not yet shed tears since they were 15 years old, who are still going through their healing process. There are communities that want to speed things up, and for them, we will be there with financial support, obviously, among other things.
I can't subtract the role of the government of Quebec from the equation. I recently spoke with the minister, Mr. Lafrenière, with whom we have an excellent working relationship to support the communities, but we will not do anything without the consent of the communities. That being said, this statement is not an excuse to take our time. We will be there, with respect and with the informed consent of the community.
Jeff Wilkins
View Jeff Wilkins Profile
Jeff Wilkins
2021-06-09 18:48
Thank you and good evening, Mr. Chair and the members of this committee.
I'm Jeff Wilkins, the national president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.
I'm going to focus my opening statement more on the first part of the what the committee is looking into, and that's the current situation in federal prisons in relation to the Correctional Service response to COVID-19, but I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have with regard to the structured intervention units or the reports of sexual coercion and violence in Canadian prisons.
I'd first like to express my pride in representing such an incredible group of professionals, the correctional officers of Canada, who have worked through this pandemic with pride, who have sacrificed their own health and safety in their mandate to protect the Canadian public, and who all too often are unrecognized for the vitally important role they play in the criminal justice system.
Over the last 15 months, our members have been on the front lines battling this pandemic and performing the duties of all first responder groups. Arguably, one of the most dangerous occupations in the country is that of a correctional officer, and the global pandemic only increased the danger for our members. While countless public servants were sent home and workplaces were closed, our members continued to don their uniforms and enter the institutions.
Over the last 15 months, there have been significant outbreaks within institutions in every region except the Atlantic region. In recent statistics, it is known that there have been approximately 5,000 reported cases of COVID among federal public servants of the core public administration. Correctional officers represent nearly 450 of those cases, meaning that our members represent approximately 10% of the recorded cases of the entire public service. That's interesting when you calculate that our membership represents only 2% of the core public administration. Furthermore, our members were unable to telework, so our rates of infection were, for the most part, a result of work.
The waves of this pandemic resulted in a turbulent wake that some institutions are going to feel the effects of for years to come. We saw cases where the workforce of correctional officers was depleted in some of our institutions to about 30%. Forced overtime became a reality for our members in many of our institutions.
The pandemic choked the induction training programs for new correctional officers entering the service, just when that relief was needed. When restrictions began to lift after the first wave, the service scrambled to try to put on as many correctional officer training programs as they could; however, we're still behind, and our members will face another summer where forced overtime will be a reality.
UCCO-SACC-CSN was encouraged at the beginning of this pandemic when virtually all provinces moved to strengthen the front lines by providing a hazard allowance, while also creating and promoting morally inspiring messages about those working on the front lines. For those who stepped into the line of fire, it is both important to reward that bravery and to provide messages of thanks, respect and encouragement. Rightfully, front-line workers have been portrayed as heroes across this country, and I would like to highlight to this committee that the members of UCCO-SACC-CSN, Canada's federal correctional officers, are heroes as well.
The heroes I represent have not made the spotlight of recognition. Nowhere have I witnessed a message of thanks for the correctional officer. Since the beginning of this pandemic, UCCO-SACC-CSN has been asking about that recognition in the form of a hazard allowance from this government to help encourage and recognize the work being performed for the public. Unfortunately, the government has not moved in a direction to recognize this. However, this government does remain committed to subsidizing the provinces to recognize the essential workers in their jurisdiction. For the members of UCCO-SACC-CSN, this failure is demoralizing.
This pandemic has brought on many challenges for corrections, to say the least. The very nature of a penitentiary is to provide control by restricting movements and associations, while working to rehabilitate the population to become law-abiding citizens. Ironically, the way to control the spread of a pandemic in civil society is also to restrict movements and associations. Our institutions are essentially communal living facilities, not much different from long-term care homes. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it's how quickly the virus can spread in places where there's an inability to create individual space.
Of course, the population in our structured intervention units, our SIUs, has also been affected. The SIU model, which replaced segregation in November 2019, can only be assessed based on the four months it was running before the pandemic took hold in March. Though the members of UCCO-SACC-CSN and other institutional staff have worked tirelessly to meet the mandate set forth in the CCRA, it has proven extremely difficult to do with the necessary institutional restrictions.
UCCO-SACC-CSN has been vocal on many fronts with our employer, as well as the government, throughout this pandemic. We have raised and debated everything from personal protective equipment to leave restrictions, institutional routine change, risk mitigation strategies, vaccination priority, hazard pay and now, obviously, the work being done to return to normal routines.
As COVID fades into our history, we'll always need to be aware of the devastation that comes with a pandemic of this magnitude and be prepared for a future crisis.
As we come out of this pandemic, proper attention needs to be given to the mental health of our first responders and essential workers, who have made sacrifices for the public. Essentially, a battle has been waged against this virus since March 2020. All of those who have been on the front line, as well as those helping to stop the spread by following public health orders, are tired, physically and mentally. Mental health will need to be on the forefront of any agenda moving forward.
I thank you for the opportunity to make this opening statement, and I welcome any questions from the committee.
View Kamal Khera Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you. I was going to ask about that, so thank you for bringing that forward and for saving that time.
Ms. Emilie Coyle: That's great. Thanks.
Ms. Kamal Khera: Dr. Doob, again, thanks for all the work you do.
In one of your reports, you raised concerns regarding the lack of clarity on meaningful human contact requirements. How do you define “meaningful human contact”, and are there any examples, including from other jurisdictions, internationally, maybe, that can help staff better conceptualize the term?
Anthony Doob
View Anthony Doob Profile
Anthony Doob
2021-06-09 19:01
It's not well defined in the legislation, and that is a problem, or certainly would be a problem if CSC were even capable of providing meaningful human contact of any kind to a substantial number of prisoners.
What we're finding is, however it's defined, even CSC is telling us they're not accomplishing it.
My own feeling is that meaningful human contact is something we should be concerned about defining. At least what we have to do is to make sure that people have some form of human contact. Then we can worry about how to make it more meaningful and perhaps more human. At the moment, we're not even getting there. We're not even at the first step, let alone defining how good it is.
Jessica Reid
View Jessica Reid Profile
Jessica Reid
2021-06-08 11:05
Good morning, Madam Chair and committee.
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak about the importance of including children with incarcerated parents in the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights and to provide recommendations to protect their rights, support healing and ultimately help break the cycle of intergenerational trauma and criminality. After witnessing the devastating impact of parental incarceration as an educator, 10 years ago I developed KIP Canada. Currently, we are one of the only organizations in this country that specifically provide support for children who've been affected by their parents' involvement in the justice system. As a practitioner, educator and researcher, I've seen the desperate need for policy changes to better support the over 370,000 innocent children who are affected in Canada.
For decades, children of incarcerated parents have been referred to as the invisible and forgotten victims. Despite the ripple effects of parental criminality on children's well-being, economic security and developmental outcomes, these children have yet to be recognized and supported as victims of crime in Canada. However, these effects are consistent with the bill's definition of a victim.
First, we must recognize and acknowledge that parental criminality often occurs in the context of intergenerational trauma and systematic oppression, where marginalized children are disproportionately impacted and are exposed to mental health and substance-use concerns, poverty and other adverse childhood experiences that only exacerbate the effects on their well-being. Parental criminality has consistently resulted in children enduring emotional harm, stigma and isolation.
Researchers have found that one in five children are present at their parent's arrest. In many cases, children witness weapons being drawn at their parents and their homes being raided. Due to the nature of this trauma, children often experience post-traumatic stress symptoms, separation anxiety and even developmental regression. Moreover, children grieve the loss of their parents, as they have difficulty maintaining contact during incarceration because of the financial, geographic and policy barriers that currently exist.
Scholars have now identified parental incarceration as an adverse childhood experience due to the lifelong impact it has on development and well-being. Specifically, research has shown that children who are separated from an incarcerated parent before the age of 18 years old have an elevated risk of mental health concerns, physical illnesses and negative developmental outcomes throughout life. Without support, it is estimated that children with incarcerated parents are four to seven times more likely to come into conflict with the law. These highlight the importance of recognizing children impacted by parental incarceration as victims in the bill and providing effective support to mitigate their effects.
Consistent with research, our programs and supports at KIP Canada have demonstrated the impact of providing early intervention and support for the unique needs of children affected by parental incarceration in Canada that are guided by their voices and based on trauma-informed, strength-based and anti-oppressive practices. In particular, counselling, after-school and mentoring programs, peer support groups and family visits have been effective in supporting children and youth at all phases of the justice system. Overall, these supports have been instrumental in enhancing their well-being, developing protective factors, and yielding positive outcomes while reducing the cycle of intergenerational criminality.
Based on research, practice, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and our youth advisory, we have five recommendations.
One, include the children of incarcerated parents in the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights.
Two, consider the best interests of children of incarcerated parents, as they identify them to be, at all phases of the justice system.
Three, amend policy to reduce barriers and enable children to maintain contact with their parents, such as by lowering age restrictions.
Four, invest in early interventions tailored to the unique needs of children of incarcerated parents.
Five, improve communication and collaboration between the justice, child welfare, education and mental health systems to increase access to wraparound support for children and families.
In Canada, every child's life and trauma should matter, yet children of incarcerated parents remain the forgotten victims. It's time for us to recognize the significance of the trauma associated with parental criminality and effectively respond by including these victims in this bill and providing the support they deserve. This proactive response would help to address the effects of intergenerational trauma, reduce systematic barriers and support the healing for the invisible victims, while being one of the most effective crime prevention strategies that our country can invest in.
Thank you.
View Rachel Blaney Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you, Chair.
Ms. O'Brien ended her answer to my question talking about making sure that veterans are ready for the dog. I'm just wondering if that did come up in other testimony. One of the concerns is having a service dog placed and not having the capacity within the veteran's household to care for the dog.
I'm just wondering, Ms. Forbes, if you could start, and then maybe I'll come to you, Ms. MacKenzie, to just talk about how that assessment is done and what supports are in place, not only for the veteran but for the family to support the service dog.
Danielle Forbes
View Danielle Forbes Profile
Danielle Forbes
2021-06-07 17:01
For our part, we actually use the prescriber guidelines that were developed by Kristine Aanderson. She was also my co-chair in the CGSB committee. That is our first line of defence because that allows us to ensure that there's been a conversation with a medical professional about a state of readiness and whether it's the best fit. We often get looped into those conversations, so it doesn't happen just between our clients and their treatment professionals. It's usually a three-way conversation between National Service Dogs, the treatment professional....
Built into our policy, based on the ADI PTSD standards for military, we are required to make sure that we are engaging on that mental health piece. Emergency supports are put in place so that there are at least two other individuals in that client circle of support whom we can reach out to if they're in crisis, not only to deal with the safety of the dog but to make sure the client is safe. That is built into the ADI PTSD standards for military. We also make sure our follow-up process is intensive and that we follow up well with the clients. We made the commitment at NSD to have a mental health professional on staff, not just on standby.
I'm sorry. I probably blew through your two minutes.
Laura A. MacKenzie
View Laura A. MacKenzie Profile
Laura A. MacKenzie
2021-06-07 17:03
I'll just say that, yes, we follow pretty well the same thing Danielle does. We have a lifetime membership for our members. Most of our members come back even when they're done, so we see them typically for a weekly or biweekly visit. We call it the K-9 Country Inn family. Our members just keep coming back, but we do the same things. We talk to their health providers. We have meetings with them. We talk about what tasks are going to be required of the dog, and then we have people we can call if we think the person is in crisis. It's the same type of thing.
Medric Cousineau
View Medric Cousineau Profile
Medric Cousineau
2021-06-07 17:04
If you look at the prescriber guidelines, you will find that the service dog readiness decision tree is the second of three decision trees. I think that will lay to rest a lot of these issues.
Victor Kuperman
View Victor Kuperman Profile
Victor Kuperman
2021-06-03 15:55
Thank you so much, Chair Casey. I appreciate being here, and I thank you for your patience.
I'm an associate professor at the Department of Linguistics and Languages at McMaster University, and I am a member of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging. I study two topics: the psychological and emotional well-being of seniors and the public discourse regarding seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic. I will touch upon both topics today.
I use language as my data: media and social media, stories written by seniors, and messaging by federal and provincial authorities. The present testimony is based on my own work and existing international research.
Our studies of stories written by older adults show that the psychological fallout of COVID-19 on Canadian seniors has been profound. Linguistic analysis of the choice of words and topics pointed to signs of profound psychological distress among seniors. We saw an increasing use of language markers of pessimism, anxiety, fear and uncertainty. This evidence maps well onto the Canadian statistics of deteriorating mental health.
We set up a longitudinal study that uncovered the dynamics of the emotional toll that the pandemic took. Psychological well-being of seniors did not decline immediately after the global lockdown in March 2020. Rather, seniors showed emotional resilience to stress, which set off this decline by roughly four months, yet since August 2020 and up until now, the seniors have remained at the same deteriorated emotional state—the “new normal”. If the lockdown continues, our data predict that this state will worsen, leading to further loss of health and lives. Our analyses further confirmed robust findings that loneliness, social isolation and pre-pandemic health issues are the key determinants of psychological vulnerability.
What brings relief to seniors? Many participants in our studies mentioned the success of intergenerational online projects involving storytelling and story-sharing, a creative and therapeutically relevant form of communication, yet these projects leave out those seniors that may need them the most, that is, the ones without access or knowledge to engage in online communication. Unless caretakers provide training in the use of online tools of social engagement to such individuals, the digital divide will grow and social isolation exacerbate.
Given available data, I recommend to support further development of social engagement programs, especially those across generations; provide reliable Internet infrastructure and access to technology to all seniors; and, support education in digital literacy for seniors with the help of trained caretakers.
Another topic that looms large in my current research and the international research is the rise of ageism in the public discourse on the pandemic. This discriminatory sentiment is not new, but it has now been fuelled by the greater vulnerability that seniors show to COVID-19. Ageism surfaces in media as an undifferentiated portrayal of all seniors as frail, helpless or burdensome. This negative perspective can even find support in social policies if they are formulated in terms of age as a number, rather than talking about individuals and their situation. In its most radical form, ageism surfaces as blatant disregard for seniors’ lives. It is illustrated in social networks by an offensive, insulting label: #BoomerRemover.
Ageism is not a prevalent sentiment in social media, but it is persistent, so it strengthens negative stereotyping against seniors in all age groups. It has been widely reported to bias triaging decisions in health care delivery against seniors, as well as employment decisions. Seniors themselves absorb this negative public discourse as well. It adds to their daily stress, harms their cognitive functioning and undermines their self-esteem.
With these findings in mind, I recommend to support educational and public awareness programs about aging and its physiological, cognitive and emotional components. In official communication, including policies and public health messaging, I recommend avoiding an emphasis on age as a critical group variable. Instead, public messaging should target socio-economic or health-related characteristics of individuals.
Thank you for your attention. I'm looking forward to further discussion.
View Tim Louis Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
Dr. Evans, I know we're talking about biosecurity and stopping diseases and that we're in the middle of a global pandemic, but in your experience with trying to protect the physical and mental health of both animals and farmers, are we learning? Would you say we're learning from the lessons of the global COVID pandemic that we're experiencing? Are there applications and lessons we can take moving forward to protect our farmers and our animals?
Brian Evans
View Brian Evans Profile
Brian Evans
2021-06-03 15:57
Thank you for the question. I think it offers a number of insights.
Certainly, as Scott has touched on, the reality of disease emergence is constantly changing, and it's emerging on an ongoing basis. We see up to five new diseases emerge every year, and 60% of those have an animal base or an animal origin to them that can affect human health as well.
I would like to say that lessons get learned, but I would be remiss if I said that with sincerity, because I think that while often there are lessons noted, our reality is that history tends to repeat itself all too often.
Canada itself is not immune to the introduction of diseases on farms, obviously, like all nations. The committee might recall two of the more memorable ones. One was foot-and-mouth disease in Saskatchewan in 1952, which obviously predates the vast majority of the committee members, I'd suggest. It was concluded that the foot-and-mouth disease in Saskatchewan was ultimately related to a farm worker who moved from West Germany to Saskatchewan in 1951. The area in West Germany where he resided and worked with livestock was suffering from an outbreak of foot-and-mouth type A, which was the same type of foot-and-mouth that emerged on farms in Saskatchewan over the subsequent time period. It's postulated that it may have been the result of boots and clothing that he brought with him that were not cleaned and disinfected. Obviously those issues of disinfection and cleaning weren't as prevalent in industry at that time as they are today. Again, that was an incident that was determined to be caused when a farm worker actually introduced the disease.
More recently, in 2009, we dealt in Canada and globally with the outbreak of H1N1, which unfortunately picked up the misnomer of “swine flu”, which was totally inappropriate, given it was a triple-reassortant virus. In this situation, Canada was one of 22 countries around the world where infection with H1N1 was finally detected or confirmed in swine populations. Again, in the vast majority of those circumstances, it was determined that these pigs had been infected by people—
View Neil Ellis Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Neil Ellis Profile
2021-06-03 17:02
I have one last question, and I'll give it to you, Darren. Don't feel that I'm picking on you here, but this question was asked already of Marcel. Mr. Barlow explained in his testimony to the committee on May 6, 2021, that protecting the mental health of farmers was a key motivation for introducing Bill C-205. I wanted you to touch on this. If enacted, would this bill improve the mental health of farmers? If so, how?
Darren Ference
View Darren Ference Profile
Darren Ference
2021-06-03 17:02
This act would improve the mental health of farmers. Having all these people come in is stressful for the farmer. It's like invading your home or your place of business. Your home is your private place. Our farms are our private place, no different than our homes. If we have 30 people sitting there demanding things, it is very stressful to deal with. Our animals are actually a part of us. When the animals become stressed, we're also stressed. This would help improve mental health.
View Richard Lehoux Profile
CPC (QC)
View Richard Lehoux Profile
2021-06-03 17:17
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for joining us this afternoon.
My first question is for you, Mr. Groleau. You have placed a lot of emphasis on the psychological impact on the farming families of these incursions onto farms. You spoke at length about the Grégoire family and then you talked about a dairy farm in the Estrie. Those incidents had consequences later.
Could you tell us a little more about that, Mr. Groleau?
Marcel Groleau
View Marcel Groleau Profile
Marcel Groleau
2021-06-03 17:17
The farmer in the Estrie managed to stop them, as they were only two. So it was easier to limit what they were doing. Only two animals ended up being driven outside the barn. So the damage was limited.
View Richard Lehoux Profile
CPC (QC)
View Richard Lehoux Profile
2021-06-03 17:18
But there was another case that was reported to us at a previous meeting. Those farmers were a young couple, who had a pig operation for about a year. After the incursion they had on their property, they left farming. That's no real incentive for the next generation of farmers.
Marcel Groleau
View Marcel Groleau Profile
Marcel Groleau
2021-06-03 17:18
Exactly.
I would also like to bring up the point by saying that Bill C‑205 is certainly not about protecting farming families. It is about protecting the health and well-being of the animals. I feel that is important, and you in the federal government have the tool with which you can respond. If your response is for the health and well-being of the herd, you will also be protecting the health of farming families.
As for the stress, we as farmers are all concerned that it may happen to us. It's inevitable. No one can predict when or how it will happen, but we know that it can happen to us. We are under that stress as well.
View Louise Chabot Profile
BQ (QC)
Ms. Porter, you have conducted several studies and made a number of observations regarding seniors.
In your experience, are there additional costs and expenses associated with illness that may contribute to increased stress and anxiety among seniors aged 65 to 75?
Michelle Porter
View Michelle Porter Profile
Michelle Porter
2021-06-01 16:00
Your question was around whether this whole situation has created more problems in terms of anxiety and mental health. Yes, certainly.
I wouldn't say that's across the board. I think it's a bit of a stereotype to think that all older people have fared poorly during the pandemic. I think we have some very resilient older people who have actually done quite well during this. They've had life experience. They've potentially gone through scenarios like this. I know a 96-year-old woman. She's not happy with the situation as it has been, but she has been quite resilient. She's had a lot of struggles in her life.
Certainly, there are older people who have suffered, particularly those who are on low incomes, who are disconnected from their communities or who are living in apartment buildings. They don't feel safe even leaving their rooms.
Yes, dealing with the mental health challenges that the pandemic has posed certainly will be a reality going forward as well.
View Wayne Long Profile
Lib. (NB)
Thank you, Chair, and good afternoon to my colleagues.
Thank you so much to our witnesses this afternoon. Again, your advocacy is very much appreciated.
I want to touch on isolation and mental health for seniors. Certainly, as politicians during campaigns, we all go door to door and we have one-on-one direct conversations. I would say without question that when I would leave the doors of seniors who were alone, who were isolated, was when I was the most shaken and concerned.
Certainly, as a government, we came forth with some things. We raised the GIS for low-income single seniors. We lowered the age of eligibility from 67 to 65. We're going to now raise the old age pension for those age 75 and older by 10%.
With respect to COVID, however, the pandemic itself has created challenges and exposed increased levels of need for direct government support during crisis for all Canadians but especially for seniors. We want to make sure and recognize the importance of ensuring that seniors are equipped with the mental health supports to combat the social isolation of being away from family and loved ones.
Can you both touch on the issues that have become more pronounced due to the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to mental health and isolation for seniors?
We'll start with you, Ms. Boscart.
Veronique Boscart
View Veronique Boscart Profile
Veronique Boscart
2021-06-01 16:17
No problem.
The second component, and Ms. Porter can talk more about this, is to really get serious about providing financial, mental and health support for the caregivers. They provide the majority of care in our communities. In order for them to balance everything else, they will need support.
Michelle Porter
View Michelle Porter Profile
Michelle Porter
2021-06-01 16:18
Absolutely. We certainly hear all the time about how burdened caregivers are, and when we've done consultations around the province of Manitoba, we've certainly heard that there's a lot of need for respite care. There just isn't enough respite care, and one can only imagine how challenging that has been because respite programs were closed during the pandemic.
In looking at the Canadian longitudinal study on aging, some of their data and some of the anxiety and mental health issues, it was actually some of the younger seniors who were experiencing some of the larger challenges. Part of that might be because of caregiving issues.
Caregiving is a huge issue, so on this whole idea of aging in place, we can't just be thinking about the older person. We have to do more to be thinking about the caregivers and coming up with inventive ways that others can help.
We're starting to try to find a home sharing program, where we can have students living with older people in their own homes and taking some of the pressure off of caregivers, not by replacing home care, not by replacing caregivers, but by providing caregivers with some peace of mind, both that there's someone in the home who could be helping the person and that they have someone that they can be talking to on a regular basis.
Rose-Mary Thonney
View Rose-Mary Thonney Profile
Rose-Mary Thonney
2021-06-01 16:36
Good afternoon.
The introductions have already been made, so I won't repeat them. I'm here today on behalf of the Coalition pour la dignité des aînés, a group of six associations representing over 150,000 seniors. My colleagues Lise Lapointe and Pierre Lynch, whose associations have already been mentioned, are here with me. They can answer your questions.
We're here to advocate for the priorities that seniors widely agree on.
The pandemic's toll has been particularly hard on the members of our associations. During this period, a number of them have experienced physical and mental health issues, but also significant financial pressure. The pandemic, coupled with a lack of action prior to this period, has left many seniors in a vulnerable situation.
The lack of health transfers to the provinces has resulted in an under‑funded health care system. The impact on seniors' care is felt on a daily basis.
The coalition believes that increased health transfers to the provinces are necessary to improve the living conditions of seniors. Only 25% of the money allocated to long‑term care is spent on home support. Only 3% of seniors in Quebec live in long‑term care facilities. The rest live at home or in seniors' residences. In Quebec, 18% of seniors live in seniors' residences, compared to 6% in the rest of Canada. Seniors deserve more and better than this.
The past year's crisis has also affected the mental health of seniors. The plight of long‑term care facilities and fears about the spread of COVID‑19 have isolated the most vulnerable seniors and led to greater anxiety issues. A number of seniors are suffering from real mental health issues. Services are very difficult to access through the public system and very expensive in the private sector.
The coalition is also very concerned about the financial situation of seniors.
In its latest budget, the government announced a 10% increase in old age security benefits starting in summer 2022, along with a one‑time cheque for $500 for people aged 75 and over. This isn't enough. It covers only a portion of vulnerable seniors. Nearly four out of ten people aged 65 and over rely on the guaranteed income supplement to make ends meet. These people deserve the same consideration as people aged 75 and over. The increase provided by the government must also be available to people aged 65 and over.
The income of a person aged 65 and over who just receives the old age security pension and the guaranteed income supplement amounts to only $18,000. This amount is well below the adequate income threshold. Moreover, there are people who receive only a pension that doesn't fully meet their needs.
We suggest that you establish a new financial allocation geared directly towards seniors who don't have enough income to live on.
The coalition is also proposing that you improve the medical expense tax credit and lower the eligibility threshold from 3% to 1.5% of the income for people aged 65 and over.
The government must do more to provide a decent income for seniors.
The benefits of these types of measures would be felt across the country and would have a positive impact on both the living conditions of seniors and the economy. Government investments in improving living conditions would be redistributed throughout the Canadian economy and would promote an economic recovery that includes seniors.
As you can see in its document entitled “38 solutions for the dignity of seniors,” the coalition provides many concrete and easy‑to‑implement proposals.
We're ready, and my colleagues in particular are ready, to answer your questions. Thank you.
Isobel Mackenzie
View Isobel Mackenzie Profile
Isobel Mackenzie
2021-06-01 16:42
Thank you very much for inviting me to provide my insights on the impact of COVID-19 on seniors. I have to tell you that in my 25-plus years of working with seniors, I can honestly say that nothing has matched this past year for both moments of breathtaking despair and also occasions of spectacular inspiration.
We know that the nation has been focused on seniors in long-term care, and COVID-19 has revealed for all of us to see what life can be like for some who live in nursing homes. Canadians didn't like what they saw and very loudly told their governments that we need to do better. We are starting to see those commitments flow to long-term care from both our federal and provincial governments. That signals a brighter future, hopefully, but a caveat from somebody who's been around for quite a while is that these fiscal commitments need to be followed with expectations, and the expectations need to be able to be measured. Standards are only as good as their monitoring and enforcement.
We also need to remember that the changes are not going to happen overnight, and most importantly, they are not likely to meaningfully affect those who live in long-term care through the pandemic. We need to take stock of both the physical and the psychological damage experienced by current residents that has come from both their being terrified of a deadly virus and their being kept away from their family and friends and their normal routines.
We know that the rate of prescribing antipsychotics increased exponentially over the pandemic here in B.C. We saw an increase of over 10% in the prescription of antipsychotics. That is the highest annual increase that we have ever seen since we've begun measuring this. Here in B.C., we've wiped out all the gains of the past 10 years to reduce their use. We did that in a single year.
There are also going to be emotional scars on family members that may never heal. The pain for some of these family members from forced separation from their loved ones cannot be overstated, and we really do need to reflect on how our actions were inconsistent with our words and devalued the importance of connections with our loved ones in the last years of our life.
Perhaps most important as we focus on the future of long-term care is that we cannot forget that most seniors not only wish to live at home for the entirety of their lives but they do, and I'm following up on much of what Rose-Mary has spoken to very eloquently. Less than 20% of people over 85 live in long-term care in Canada. The vast majority of frail seniors need to be supported in the community, and those living in the community were also profoundly impacted by the pandemic. The rate at which a person is likely to live alone multiplies by a factor of four once you reach your eighties. The important human connections are found less at home than they are at the library, the recreation centre, the seniors centre, the bank or the grocery store. All of these were closed for long periods of time during COVID, and many struggled before COVID to be able to provide these connections. Staying at home was much more likely to mean being alone for those over 65, and it has revealed for us the importance of these community connections going forward.
The virtual connections that kept many of us going proved elusive for some seniors for a variety of reasons. For some, it was too difficult to become tech savvy at this point in their lives during COVID, but for many it was a cost issue. What COVID has highlighted, and Rose-Mary spoke to this, is how many seniors need to use their community supports because they don't have the income they need. A third of our seniors in Canada are living on the guaranteed income supplement, the GIS. In British Columbia, that means less than a minimum wage job. They are really struggling. This pandemic revealed that the $1,000 a year it costs for the Internet is just too much, so many found themselves cut off because they couldn't go to those recreation centres and seniors centres and get the access that they needed.
As we look to the future, we need to make sure that a person who goes into long-term care only does so after all community supports have been exhausted. If we use British Columbia as an example, we have tremendous work to do. In B.C., seven out of 10 admissions to long-term care were people who had no community home supports 90 days prior to their admissions.
We have a long way to go to maximize the potential of our home support and home care program in Canada. This is in part because it's fragmented in our federated model of delivery and looks very different in provinces.
Cost is a big factor. In my province we are subsidizing people in long-term care to the tune of about $60,000 a year, yet we are giving nowhere near that amount of money to assist people to live independently. Many of the costs that some of us don't associate with health care when people are in their forties, fifties and sixties become health care costs for people in their eighties and nineties.
I'll just conclude by saying that balancing the heartache of the past year has been the brilliant display of care, compassion and concern that Canadians have shown for seniors throughout this pandemic. We put up a number on a website for people to call if they wanted to help seniors and it crashed as thousands of British Columbians came forward to help. We saw that across the country, so we're not indifferent to the needs of those who are in the last years of their life. It's quite the opposite.
We need to find a way to harness this tremendous goodwill of Canadians to support aging with dignity. Hearings such as the ones you're holding today are an important first step.
I thank you for inviting me. I look forward to your questions.
Peter Holt
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Peter Holt
2021-05-28 14:27
As I said, we need to have an open mind when it comes to standards. Let me repeat that what matters is mental health.
I see soldiers with whom I have worked for many years who are not the same as they were 10 years ago, before they were deployed to Afghanistan or wherever. So it is important to consider the mental health aspect.
We are looking for a good dog, who can follow commands and all that, but I think you have to balance the mental health of the veteran with the behaviour of the dog in terms of obedience.
View John Brassard Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you, Phil. Good to see you again, by the way.
In the minute I have left, Colleen, and perhaps Darlene, do you see a need for accessibility standards apart from training standards?
Colleen Anne Dell
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Colleen Anne Dell
2021-05-28 15:23
I'm going to answer that with what Philip was saying. Staff need to be trained in mental health. With our SUAP grant right now, we've trained 30 service dog organization staff in peer support with mental health innovations. We've been evaluating that. We've had them all take mental health first aid from the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Those are the types of things. I don't know if this is answering your question, but that has to be part of that standard process too. It's not just about training that dog and handing that dog over. It's about that veteran being part of the peer support group.
You heard of the fire buddy earlier. A different term may have been used. We use fire buddy a lot. That is what that dog becomes, as well as the group that the people are with. We have seen the ability to do that now online, which has been really challenging during the pandemic, but we've also been able to go online and do some of that.
View Kate Young Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Kate Young Profile
2021-05-25 16:07
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the minister for spending time with us this afternoon to talk about our important study.
I want to read something to the minister from a recent pamphlet the United Way Elgin Middlesex distributed in my area. The pamphlet is actually called “The #LocalLove Letter”. It outlines some of the amazing programs the United Way and other agencies have been able to provide to our seniors during this obviously challenging time. Specifically, I'd like to read about program funding through your department's new horizons for seniors program. It reads as follows:
Since the start of the pandemic, the Canadian Mental Health Association [Middlesex] has seen a 43 percent increase in calls to The Support Line, many coming from seniors who are feeling scared, vulnerable, lonely....
Lori Hassall, the director of crisis and short-term interventions at CMHA, says, “It was an issue even before the pandemic. We were already hearing from a lot of seniors who would call every day just to talk to someone.”
A $10,000 grant from United Way, through the Government of Canada's seniors response fund, helped CMHA launch “Friendly Callers”, a new outreach program matching trained volunteers with seniors across Elgin and Middlesex counties.
The weekly call was a chance to check in and connect seniors to local services, such as Meals on Wheels, neighbourhood-based resources or the City of London age friendly network, to ensure that they were getting the support they needed.
Hassall says:
There's so much research now about the impact of loneliness on physical and mental health.... Social connection is the antidote....
I want to ask the minister if this story reflects some of what she has heard about how our government funding through this pandemic has helped seniors across the country.
View Deb Schulte Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much for that question. Absolutely, these are the amazing inspirational stories that I've been hearing all across the country in every corner, of how people have stepped up to support each other, especially seniors. They are very grateful that the government also stepped up, enhancing the funding.
The new horizons for seniors program had already launched in January. When the pandemic hit, we allowed organizations to change their programming very quickly. Whereas before they would have brought people together in a facility, now they had to try to find a way to support them in their own homes and virtually, and that is exactly what happened. That happened because we allowed them to transform their programs and to use the money in another way.
We also enhanced the program with another $20 million, in addition to the money this year, to provide 5,000 projects that have been supporting seniors from coast to coast to coast in urban, rural and remote areas. This is something I'm especially proud of. The government did recognize very early where the challenges were. They were listening to the groups and found a way, through enhanced funding and changes in the program, to get those organizations to step up and support seniors across the country.
Thank you very much for that. I've heard really inspirational stories. We didn't just do it with new horizons. We did it with funding through the United Way. We did it through emergency community support funding. There was half a billion dollars provided to community support organizations to help vulnerable Canadians across Canada. We should feel very proud of the work that's been done. I'm certainly proud of the organizations that have stepped up to offer those services.
View Leah Gazan Profile
NDP (MB)
I have just one last question.
We know that the pandemic has been horrific in long-term care homes. I'm wondering if there are any supports that will be provided to seniors who have survived and have suffered, for example, and who, going forward, may be experiencing post-traumatic stress from their experience in long-term care.
Are there any supports that are planned for seniors?
Annette Gibbons
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Annette Gibbons
2021-05-25 17:47
There are a couple of things that come to mind. Certainly, the things that we're doing under the new horizons for seniors program and the new age well at home initiative will be looking at supports—though perhaps not dealing with PTSD. There were some measures in the budget, as well, under Health Canada that deal with mental health supports to Canadians. Of course, the government did introduce some measures during the pandemic, and there are other measures in the budget.
I certainly would encourage you to, perhaps, invite Health Canada for further discussions on that as we're not really in a position.
Deb Stark
View Deb Stark Profile
Deb Stark
2021-05-25 15:49
Great. Thank you very much.
I am pleased to accept the invitation to appear before this committee as you consider Bill C-205, an act to amend the Health of Animals Act.
I want to start by emphasizing that I'm here because I was invited and I wish to be helpful. It's very important to me that it's clear that my comments do not represent the view of any of the organizations that I'm involved with now or have been involved with in the past.
When I received this invitation and I asked why you wanted to talk to me, I was told it was because of my long-standing experience in various organizations. With that in mind, I thought I might take a minute and share some of my background.
I am a veterinarian by training. I spent most of my career in the Government of Ontario, including serving as Ontario’s first chief veterinary officer and, at another time, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Also, at various times, I was the manager of the ministry’s animal welfare programs and the assistant deputy minister in charge of the food safety programs. I'm now serving on several not-for-profit boards, including the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, or CAPI; the University of Guelph; and Ontario Genomics. I'm also the chair of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada departmental audit committee.
I would stop here, but I assume your first question might be, “What do you think about the bill?” I offer the following comments.
First, I want to thank you for your due diligence. Conversations on issues around animal diseases, farmer mental health and protecting the welfare of both people and animals are all important. Canadian agriculture plays an important role in global food security, in mitigating the impacts of climate change and in contributing to our economic success. Study after study has concluded that having an effective and efficient regulatory framework is important to this sector, so it's very good that you're closely scrutinizing these proposed changes.
I know some of your members have asked if the problem is truly about a gap in the legislative or regulatory framework, or if it's more about the application of the existing rules. I confess that I have that question as well. I don't know the answer, but I think it's important to think about that.
I also know that some members have asked about the ability to enforce the provisions in this bill, and I think that's another important question. Farmers expect to follow rules. They expect others to do the same and to suffer consequences when they do not. I don't think it's going to help any farmer's mental health if expectations rise because this bill passes and then nothing really changes.
I think it's important to acknowledge that the activity this bill is trying to prevent stems from a core tension. In its 2020 survey of Canadians, the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity reported that one-third of those surveyed were concerned about the humane treatment of animals. Perhaps most of those people just want to be reassured, but I know some of them are concerned with specific practices on the farm. I know others are completely against any kind of livestock and poultry production.
Change can be, and has been, driven by the farmers themselves, as research leads to better animal care; by consumers, through the choices they make in the marketplace; and of course by the activism of others. Animal agriculture isn't unique in this regard, and I don't think any of these drivers is going away soon.
These points being made, I want to to conclude with my first comment. I don't think I have to tell this committee that our food production system is a Canadian success story. As long as the world chooses to eat meat, Canada can be a good place to raise animals. Canadian farmers deserve a regulatory environment that protects their animals, them and their assets.
Thank you very much.
Keith Currie
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Keith Currie
2021-05-25 15:53
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to the committee members.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture, or CFA, and its members understand the critical importance of maintaining a safe and reliable food supply and protecting the safety of those who feed us. As such, CFA is in support of Bill C-205, an act to amend the Health of Animals Act.
Farmers and ranchers work hard to provide a safe and sustainable food supply for all Canadians. It is becoming increasingly difficult for farmers and agricultural owners to effectively produce food, fibre and fuel due to ever-increasing trespassing events. Farms and farming operations have come under increasing threat from trespassers and activists who illegally enter property, barns and buildings, which cause significant disruptions to the entire agri-food sector.
Once-peaceful protests have now escalated into trespassing, invasions, breaking and entering into barns and other livestock facilities, theft, and harassment. The issue has now evolved to activities that create potential damage and liability far beyond the traditional, such as biosecurity breaches on livestock operations. Biosecurity breaches of crop production operations often go unnoticed. There is food tampering, damage from people intruding in confined spaces and impacting the welfare of animals; activists moving animals off site; and sit-ins and protests around processing plants. We see the obstruction of trucks and drivers hauling our livestock to and from farm and livestock processing facilities, as well as the release of animals from production facilities for fur bearing animals and hogs, for example. There is trespassing and intrusive behaviour on fish farms.
These incidents distress farmers, their families and employees and threaten the health of livestock and crops. When activists breach biosecurity protocols, this ultimately puts the entire food system at risk. While current trespassing laws, regulations, fines and penalties may have been adequate to deal with nuisance trespassing in years past, the current new era of activism sees well-orchestrated and planned events that result in uninvited and unwelcome trespassers on farm properties, yards, buildings and processing plants. The number of people with a specific focused agenda are increasing at an alarming rate. It's intended to cause economic stress for the producer.
While trespassing laws are typically under the jurisdiction of provinces, often provincial statutes are not enough of a deterrent for people who commit trespass offences. Bill C-205 will complement provincial legislation as an indicator of the severity of these offences and that protecting the agri-food industry is critical. Charges, when laid, are often dropped by the court system as they are considered minor infractions.
While the CFA does support the passage of this bill—and we urge all parliamentarians to get behind it—we do have some suggestions for some changes.
The proposed section 9.1 of the bill currently reads:
No person shall, without lawful authority or excuse, enter a building or other enclosed place in which animals are kept knowing that or being reckless as to whether entering such a place could result in the exposure of the animals to a disease or toxic substance that is capable of affecting or contaminating them.
This seems to indicate that unless you are fully aware that you are willfully reckless, the violation is excusable. A recent incident on an Ottawa-area mink farm where somebody had broke in and entered had the judge acquit them of a mischief charge because, although they entered the building illegally, no harm came to the animals. In the judge's mind, there was no violation.
We would like to see that change, so that it says that no person “without lawful authority, enter a building or an enclosed place in which animals are kept, to prevent the exposure of the animals to a disease or toxic substance that is capable of affecting or contaminating them”. As well, add in anyone “who aids or abets” someone in this should “be considered party to that contravention”.
As you heard Dr. Stark mention, mental health is becoming a big issue around activism. Farmers already face a wide variety of daily stressors that affect their mental wellness, whether it be weather, environment, market fluctuations, farm labour and social isolation, just to name a few. Trespass and activism are now an additional growing source of stress. Continuing to allow on-farm trespassing and barn break-ins to occur is not only threatening the viability of Canadian agriculture, but also posing a serious threat to farmers' mental health and well-being.
Bill C-205 recognizes the mental health crisis in agriculture and aims to support farmers and farming businesses by introducing new protections against trespassing and biosecurity breaches.
I should also add that livestock transporters and processing facilities are also under a similar tremendous mental stress from activism and activists.
I'll leave it at that, and I'll close, leaving more time for our witnesses to ask questions of me. I look forward to the conversation.
Thank you.
View Yves Perron Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you.
You talked about unfortunate and regrettable events that could happen if there were no regulation. Some producers might decide to take the law into their own hands.
Beyond that, I would also like you to talk about the mental health of producers.
Keith Currie
View Keith Currie Profile
Keith Currie
2021-05-25 16:42
By nature, farming or ranching is a stressful job because of all of the elements that are out of our control. However, when you pile on top of it the opportunity for activists to come on your property without permission to potentially not only endanger your buildings by breaking in but also affect all of your livestock either through bringing in a disease or simply letting them go.... Animals like mink don't typically do well out in the outdoor environment, so if you open up a barn at a mink farm and let them all go, they are not going to survive, yet the people who do that don't get charged with animal cruelty.
Sherry Baker
View Sherry Baker Profile
Sherry Baker
2021-05-25 12:21
Thank you, Madam Chair and honourable members of the standing committee, for the opportunity to contribute to the important work you are doing to study elder abuse in Canada.
I am proud to be able to describe to you the fine work being done in British Columbia to raise the awareness of abuse, neglect and self-neglect, and to help our communities find ways to prevent this.
The last two provincial governments have recognized that this issue is often hidden, little understood and extremely damaging to older and vulnerable adults throughout the province. For the last 10 years they have funded the work that our organizations are doing, and it is my distinct pleasure to have been involved since the beginning.
I have written a more detailed description of how the B.C. Association of Community Response Networks and the Council to Reduce Elder Abuse are organized to work towards reducing elder abuse by concentrating on supporting a local community response.
Here is just a sampling of the issues and remedies that you can consider. One, middle-aged children of aging parents find it difficult to help their growing families' needs. They see their parents with assets, and they think it would be good if they could have their inheritance before their parents die.
Two, when companies find themselves having to downsize or, as is happening during the COVID pandemic, having to lay off workers, many wage earners are finding themselves desperate and move back into their parents' home, often with children.
Three, immigrant families often bring older family members from their homeland to help look after the children. Sometimes these older adults are not provided with any freedom to create a safe life for themselves, which is further hindered by the inability to speak English or French.
Four, adding to the challenges of reconciliation, decolonization and the impact of residential schools, some of the older indigenous Canadians are also faced with pressure from their younger family members, who expect them to provide financial support to help them deal with their own issues.
I would like to list some of the ways that the federal government can play a role in reducing elder abuse.
First, it can understand that it is a systemic issue, and there is no quick fix.
When considering mandatory reporting, understand that most elder abuse is perpetrated by family members, and few parents will report or lay charges against their own child. This could have the effect of driving the abuse further underground.
As Krista James of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law said at the last hearing, abused adults don't want their family members to go to jail; “they just want the abuse to stop.”
It can provide support for law reform initiatives.
It can provide support for the key role played by the RCMP so they can respond effectively.
It can provide support for research projects, which help seniors live safely in their own homes.
It can provide support for research into what causes elder abuse.
It can provide support for safe and accessible housing projects for elders.
It can provide support for job creation and retraining for people trying to enter the workforce or dealing with being downsized or laid off.
It can provide support for training for frontline workers in institutions as well as in the community.
It can provide support for English as a second-language projects for immigrant seniors, along with other settlement services.
It can provide support for indigenous communities in developing safe and healthy housing for their families and elders.
It can provide support for mental health and addiction services, especially for families in crisis. No individual can be forced into therapy, so there needs to be supports in place to help them want to change.
It can provide support for the development of safe and accessible transition houses for older adults and allow a longer stay. In B.C. a woman can only stay for 30 days in a transition house.
It can provide support for the development of a national elder abuse strategy.
I've included a lot more information in the brief that I've submitted to you.
I look forward to answering your questions.
Thank you.
Michael Villeneuve
View Michael Villeneuve Profile
Michael Villeneuve
2021-05-20 14:47
Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for inviting the Canadian Nurses Association to share our perspectives on Bill C-30 and the 2021 federal budget.
I would like to acknowledge that I speak to you today from the ancestral unceded lands of the Algonquin Anishnabe peoples in eastern Ontario. My name is Mike Villeneuve and I am the CEO of the Canadian Nurses Association. I am joined today by my great colleague Aden Hamza, who is our policy lead.
Overall, the Canadian Nurses Association welcomes the important measures outlined in the budget to continue fighting COVID-19, to care for children, to protect older adults, to expand broadband Internet to support virtual care, and to tackle systemic racism. I will focus my remarks on key issues CNA has strongly been advocating throughout the pandemic and on how the budget addresses some of these concerns.
CNA has been calling for a larger national conversation around aging to identify the best models to support safe and dignified aging in Canada. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have all seen, and some have even experienced, the devastating effects of the virus for older adults and the way COVID-19 has put a spotlight on some well-known vulnerabilities in our health care systems.
In our pre-budget submission and advocacy, CNA urged the federal government to lead the development of pan-Canadian standards and to increase funding for long-term care. We're pleased to see a commitment of $3 billion to support provinces and territories in ensuring that standards for long-term care are applied, while respecting jurisdictions.
As referenced in the budget, the Health Standards Organization and Canadian Standards Association are launching a process to develop standards for long-term care. While CNA welcomes this work, of course, we do continue to urge the federal government to take a leadership role and to institute meaningful change by implementing measurable, actionable, and accountable standards to address the shocking outcomes we have seen.
Furthermore, although division 12 of part 4 of Bill C-30 provides an important emergency $4-billion top-up to the Canada health transfer, more funding is needed to meaningfully support the health and social needs of the largest generation of older people in our history. As we shared with this committee during pre-budget consultations, just the aging of our population will drive increases in health care spending by an additional $93 billion over the next decade. New dedicated funding is critical to enhance the ability of provinces and territories to invest in home care, community care, long-term care, palliative care and end-of-life care. That is why CNA continues to call on the government to implement a new demographic top-up to the Canada health transfer.
Finally, as nurses continue to fight COVID-19, CNA was pleased to see that budget 2021 pledged mental health supports dedicated to health care workers who are experiencing trauma due to COVID-19.
More than a year into the pandemic, and with many provinces facing a dangerous third wave this very day, nurses and other health care workers are facing critical fatigue and burnout. We have been hearing stories about nurses, physicians, and others planning to leave the profession, and we have seen major staffing issues in critical care units over the recent weeks across Canada. CNA is extremely concerned about nursing shortages and about how those could impact the health of Canadians going forward. A new health human resources plan led by the federal government will be crucial.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My colleague Aden and I will do our best to answer any questions. Thank you for including us.
View Peter Fragiskatos Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses.
Mr. Villeneuve and Ms. Hamza, it's very nice to see you both, again.
Mr. Villeneuve, in your testimony you spoke favourably about the budget and its focus on mental health.
I do remember your testimony many months ago, back in the fall, when you also spoke about the burnout that nurses were facing at that time as a result of COVID-19. You've mentioned it here again today.
In light of both of those things, I think it's especially positive that the budget does have this special focus on mental health and supports that would improve mental health services in Canada.
I do want to ask you a question about nursing, in general, as a profession right now. How worried are you about the problem of burnout as a result of COVID-19?
I am assuming, from your testimony, that it's only become worse in the past few months. Where do you see this going?
Aden Hamza
View Aden Hamza Profile
Aden Hamza
2021-05-20 15:37
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for the question.
We were, and continue to be, extremely concerned about the mental health of nurses. Throughout this third wave of the pandemic, we've seen a significant amount of stress due to the increased workload, the concern for personal and family safety, and the moral distress that nurses are experiencing. We're seeing a rising number of nursing vacancies across the country and we've been hearing a number of reports of nurses who may also plan to leave the profession due to burnout.
I think it's also worth mentioning that as we talk about recovery and the backlog that was mentioned earlier, we will need a healthy workforce to help relieve us of that treatment backlog. We are pleased to see the investments made to support nurses' and health care workers' mental health because, from what we're hearing, nurses right now are at a breaking point across the country.
Simon Telles
View Simon Telles Profile
Simon Telles
2021-05-18 14:36
Thank you very much.
I would like to thank all the members of the committee for inviting our organization to appear today. It is truly a pleasure for me to be with you. This is the first opportunity for our organization to be heard before you. I look forward to the opportunity to interact with you.
I would like to introduce myself. I am Simon Telles, president of Force Jeunesse. I have been involved with the organization for over four years. Coming out of a crisis like the one we've been experiencing for a little over a year, it's especially important to get involved.
Force Jeunesse is a nonprofit organization that was founded in the early 2000s to improve working conditions for young people, but the organization's mission has expanded greatly over time. It is made up of young volunteers, mainly between 18 and 35 years old, who come from different backgrounds. Some are young professionals in the health and education fields and others are students. In short, Force Jeunesse is a coalition of young volunteers who want to get involved and present concrete proposals to improve public policy.
Our mission hinges on three main axes: defending the rights and interests of youth, ensuring a certain intergenerational equity in public policy, and promoting youth engagement and the place of youth in decision-making spheres.
On a daily basis, we hear a lot of prejudice expressed about young people. In my experience, however, our youth are quite supportive, determined, and engaged.
It is true that, coming out of the COVID-19 crisis, our youth are weakened. Therefore, it is important to show special concern for them in all policy and program decisions put forward. One need only think of the very significant job losses experienced by young people, who often work in more precarious fields. In addition, compared to the rest of the population, youth have much more worrisome mental health indicators and higher rates of psychological distress. In short, young people already face many barriers in their daily lives, and these are even higher for minority youth. The crisis we just went through only accentuates these inequalities.
We are not experts on all the areas addressed in the federal budget, but we looked at it through the lens of intergenerational equity. There were four items that particularly resonated with us, and those are what I'm going to talk about today. They are mental health, federal health transfers, the environment and climate change, and finally housing.
Let's start with mental health.
As I mentioned in the introduction, young people have been particularly affected. So we are pleased to see that the budget has provided $100 million over three years for those most affected by COVID-19, including youth. The challenge now will be to get that money on the ground quickly and to increase access to psychological health care for young people, because that's what we're finding to be most lacking right now.
What we are concerned about is that youth group insurance, whether for students or workers, determines whether or not a young person has access to mental health care. For us, this situation is not acceptable. We must find solutions that will guarantee all young Canadians access to mental health care.
Many proposals are possible, but the one we favour is universal access to psychotherapy. In Quebec, we already have access to universal drug coverage. In Canada, we have access to universal health care almost everywhere. For us, it would be completely consistent and logical for mental health care to also be covered for all Quebeckers and all Canadians.
The second topic that is of great concern to us is the issue of federal health transfers.
This topic has been the subject of much discussion in the news over the past few months. We note that across the country, the population is aging and health care costs are rising faster than other government spending and the economy. In addition, the COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the situation and exposed the vulnerabilities of our health care system. Additional investments in health transfers are therefore urgently needed.
We note that health care spending is placing increasing pressure on provincial public finances. The federal government's share of funding for the system is declining, because the growth in federal transfers is not keeping pace with the growth in provincial health spending. We are therefore disappointed that the budget did not provide for an increase in health transfers, even though this is a unanimous demand from all provinces. There are few issues that bring us together to this extent, but this is one of them.
This is a real issue of intergenerational equity. You might think that young people are less concerned about health because, statistically, they have fewer health problems, but it's quite the opposite. If we don't take steps now to ensure that the health care system is adequately funded, it is our generation that will be faced with agonizing choices later on. Access to health care is one of the foundations of our social model.
The other topic I'm happy to talk about is the environment and fighting climate change.
When young people are asked what issues matter most to them, the environment and fighting climate change often come out on top. That really resonates with me. So we're very pleased to see that in the federal budget, a significant amount of funding has been dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There is a $5 billion investment over seven years. This is a step in the right direction.
That said, we believe even more needs to be done, particularly to reduce greenhouse gases, but more importantly to put in place eco-tax measures that will truly change consumer behaviour. In our view, we need to subject pollution to consequences, largely financial, and ensure greater accountability of stakeholders and polluters, whether consumers, citizens or businesses.
Finally, the last topic I would like to address with you in a general way is the issue of housing.
We are facing a real shortage of affordable housing just about everywhere in Quebec, and this phenomenon is not limited to the big cities as one might think. It affects young people in the job market particularly, because they generally have a slightly lower income at the beginning of their career. We find that the portion of their budget that goes to housing is continually increasing, which impacts other aspects of their lives and other equally basic needs.
We believe that the overheated housing market is jeopardizing the ability to afford home ownership. Young people can no longer afford home ownership, or they have to wait much longer than their parents to do so. So it's also an issue of intergenerational equity.
We find it interesting that the government, in its budget, has proposed a 1% tax to reduce foreign speculation in the market. On the other hand, for us, this is not the crux of the issue. It is a measure, but it is not the most important one. What the government should be doing is building more affordable housing, helping young people get into home ownership through tax credits and subsidies, directly assisting young people who are most in need and don't have enough income to adequately house themselves, and most importantly, rethinking programs to make sure they meet the objectives.
One example I can give you is the famous HBP, the Home Buyers' Plan, which allows young people to withdraw a certain amount from their RRSPs as a down payment for their first home. Intuitively, we tend to think that this is an interesting measure, but most young people have not yet accumulated enough money in their RRSPs. So it is a measure that is available, but it only helps a small portion of the population. We thus need to find direct ways to make housing more accessible for all young people.
Of course, in its strategy, the government really needs to ask whether every person who needs housing assistance is actually receiving assistance. What we see in the budget right now is that there are several blind spots, and we think there should be more help.
There also needs to be more federal collaboration, in our view, with provincial and municipal governments to ensure that efforts are coordinated, to avoid duplication, and to ensure that no one is left behind.
In conclusion, we find it very interesting that the government is assessing the intergenerational impact of each of the measures in the budget. For us, this is a very inspiring exercise, because it makes us aware of the impact of our decisions on future generations. Provinces and municipalities should even take a similar approach.
That said, to make the exercise even more interesting, rather than simply identifying the target population, i.e., whether the measure is aimed at youth or seniors, we should ask what the real impact of the measures put in place is on intergenerational equity. We believe that this would allow us to go even further and implement more structuring and sustainable measures.
I'll close by saying that we young people want to contribute to the work of commissions, committees, and decision-making entities in general. Please feel free to consult with us in advance of the various programs. It will always be our pleasure to contribute to the work of the committee.
Thank you for listening. I remain available, should you have more specific questions.
View Peter Fragiskatos Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Chair.
I'll have to go back to the record afterwards. I think I heard Ms. Jansen say that she may not be voting in favour of the budget, which stunned me a great deal. I think we're all very surprised by that.
I would also point Ms. Jansen and Conservative colleagues, if they wish to take a look, to the most recent data, which has regularly for the past several weeks put Canada in the very top tier—either first some days, second other days, third other days, but no worse than third—in the G20 for vaccinations per day being administered.
It's really something that I think needs to be corrected here. Yes, we can do better, of course, but we're doing extremely well right now. The effect of that rhetoric, Chair, is that it generates a sense of concern and I would say even fear that is not well placed. If we're going to be seized with issues at this committee, let's focus on the facts rather than contribute to these myths that opposition colleagues have been peddling recently.
It's a different issue altogether, but we've seen what has happened with Bill C-10, concerning which Facebook has been alive and well with conspiracy theories about censorship in recent weeks, and we all know they're not true.
I will, however, focus on the issue at hand here, Chair. I just wanted to put those points of view on the record.
Mr. Telles, thank you very much for representing youth here today. Thank you very much for being an advocate.
Ms. Dzerowicz took my question, unfortunately, which was to ask you about student debt. It was great to see that there were a number of measures put in place in budget 2021 to help students with debt. That matters a lot for me, because prior to taking on the role of a member of Parliament, I taught at Western for a number of years, where I saw students really impacted in such negative ways by student debt.
What I also saw was the mental health challenges that young people faced. I think we all know—we've heard the stories in our own communities—about the way the pandemic has exacerbated that challenge for young people. Could you speak to that? I know the budget provides a very sizable investment for mental health in this country and for improved services.
Simon Telles
View Simon Telles Profile
Simon Telles
2021-05-18 15:33
Thank you so much for the question.
I would like to clarify that the assistance given to students was very welcome. However, the young people in the workforce, fresh out of college, seem to have been forgotten. In our view, this is the blind spot in the budget.
With respect to mental health, there is already a lot of awareness and taboos are being broken more and more, which is very positive. However, when young people ask for help, they are told that the waiting lists are long and access to professionals is difficult. I'm talking about the public system, of course. When they finally get help, their therapy is terminated after a few sessions, even though they still have needs, because the number of sessions is limited. Public access to psychotherapy is truly deficient. Additional support to improve funding for the public system would be more than welcome.
The other concern we have is that access to the private network is limited to young people who have insurance that covers psychotherapy, through their education or employment. We need to find a way to make that care available to all young people, whether they have insurance or not, and that's where provincial and federal governments can play an important role in increasing accessibility to care.
View Monique Pauzé Profile
BQ (QC)
First, I would like to thank all the witnesses for being here.
This bill was introduced before Christmas but it took a lot of time for the government to fit it into the agenda. So everyone had to “turn on a dime”, as they say.
Like Mr. Saini, I am going to ask questions about health, because it's an area that interests me greatly.
My question goes to Dr. Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers.
We have talked a lot about physical health, but climate change is also creating problems with mental health and psychological distress. I would like to hear your comments on that.
You would certainly wonder about me if I did not ask a question about the pandemic. Can you explain the links between climate change, disturbances in the ecosystems, and the risk of future pandemics?
Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers
View Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers Profile
Claudel Pétrin-Desrosiers
2021-05-17 16:55
Thank you for your questions, Ms. Pauzé.
Let me answer the second one, which we have already dealt with a little. We need to understand that the environmental disturbances are many. They include the degradation of natural habitats, climate change, intensive land use and deforestation. They all have impacts on the habitats in which insects or other transmission vectors live. We are in the process of bringing humans dangerously close to sources of infection.
The most recent great viral infections, Ebola and COVID-19, are diseases that are basically spread by animal zoonotic transmission chains. The disturbances are becoming more serious more quickly, which increases the risk that incidents like those will be repeated. The future is difficult to predict, but, in a way, we are playing Russian roulette. We are taking unnecessary risks with our health.
The World Health Organization and a number of UN bodies have, in recent months, recognized that environmental disturbances played a role in the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I will let Dr. Howard tell you more about your first question, on mental health, because she has done research on the topic. Troubling mental health phenomena do occur in the context of climate change, specifically because we lose our natural reference points. We talk a lot about people feeling disconnected from their homes, their ancestral territory. But we also know that extreme climate events like hurricanes, floods and forest fires create stress.
Studies done in Quebec by public health agencies reveal that those who have gone through episodes of spring flooding subsequently show higher rates of anxiety and depression. Some even develop posttraumatic stress disorder. Of course, issues like that concern us.
Our young people are wondering what their future will be like. I am one of those young people wondering what kind of environment our future children are going to grow up in. It creates a kind of anxiety called ecoanxiety that psychiatrists, physicians and psychologists are studying a lot at the moment, in an attempt to find out the extent of the phenomenon.
These are certainly troubling questions, the more so because, over the last year, a lot of people have been isolated. There has been a lot of talk about mental health and we know that the issues are critical.
Mathieu Robitaille
View Mathieu Robitaille Profile
Mathieu Robitaille
2021-05-13 11:53
COVID-19 has definitely had a major impact on seniors; you need only consider the isolation they're forced into.
I've been in this occupation for about 20 years. However, in the past two years, for the first time, I've had to urge seniors to stay at home. We usually have to encourage them to get out, to engage in outdoor activities, to talk to people and to build a social network. Two years later, the effort that some seniors have made in this area will have to be started over from scratch.
One of the consequences of isolation is that people have less and less contact with others. Consequently, any mental health or other problems they may have will worsen. People then become more fragile.
Problems have definitely increased, even among the clientele I've observed to date.
Crystal Garrett-Baird
View Crystal Garrett-Baird Profile
Crystal Garrett-Baird
2021-05-12 17:10
It's a mental health service dog.
View John McKay Profile
Lib. (ON)
Colleagues, that brings us to the end of the third round. We have about 20 minutes available for these very excellent witnesses. My proposal would be another three- or four-minute round for each of the parties. In the meantime, while you're making up your minds, and if you could communicate with the clerk on that, I would just take the opportunity to ask a question or two on my own.
All of you have extraordinary experiences as investigators. What has struck me with a lot of these organizations is, if you will, the borderline mental illness of some of the people they would be conducting investigations on—paranoia, disassociation from reality, conspiracies, all that sort of stuff. I'd be interested in your thoughts as to what element in your investigations actually is possibly mental illness of some kind or another?
Mark Flynn
View Mark Flynn Profile
Mark Flynn
2021-05-12 18:25
Mr. Chair, from an RCMP perspective I would say mental illness is a very significant element. If you look at the COVID situation we're in right now, you see there is a lot of reporting about the increased mental illness that is being caused by the isolation that's in place. As an opinion, I would say there is likely a connection between some of the increases that we're seeing as well as the movement to align.
In some of our police investigations.... In fact we've had one that's under way right now. I won't get into too many details of it, but I'll say that it's actually an individual who is currently in a mental institution who is under investigation, and we've already intervened with that individual. I can't think of a better example than that to demonstrate the connectivity between this issue and mental illness.
View John McKay Profile
Lib. (ON)
I'll just direct that question to Mr. Hahlweg as well.
CSIS gets in before the police get in, shall we say? It is an investigation. It's not evidence.
I'm sure you've made some observations about mental illness and some of these individuals. I'm just curious as to what your thoughts are.
Timothy Hahlweg
View Timothy Hahlweg Profile
Timothy Hahlweg
2021-05-12 18:26
Like our RCMP colleagues, we have absolutely seen more of this. We have become very alive to some of the mental health indicators that allow us to make better assessments at the front end in terms of what we can or should be doing from an investigative perspective.
A lot of our work involves dealing with community members who might be better served to pre-emptively deal with individuals, rather than provoking investigative authorities from CSIS.
View Lenore Zann Profile
Lib. (NS)
Thank you.
I'd also like to ask about wellness checks, as there have been a number of cases in which the RCMP have been called to go for a wellness check, and it has not ended well for the person.
I know you said that oftentimes it's the bad news stories that hit the media, but these are definitely upsetting stories. I know that local police officers here in Nova Scotia have said that they prefer not to go to wellness checks. They believe people who have more training in wellness and mental health issues should be going to these calls.
What is your response to that, and what recommendations can you make?
Jeff Preston
View Jeff Preston Profile
Jeff Preston
2021-05-11 12:05
I'll let Staff Sergeant How speak in a moment.
I can speak for the officers around here. We go to an awful lot of wellness checks. I agree that it would be very nice to have a mental health worker come along with us, but unfortunately, in a lot of the rural communities that we police, we are everything for everyone. We are the mental health officer. We are, in some cases, the nurse and everything else. At three o'clock in the morning, there is no one else to call, so we are de facto it.
We do have a lot of training in this regard and we can go and deal with those situations, but I would rather not have to if I didn't have to.
Lee Windsor
View Lee Windsor Profile
Lee Windsor
2021-05-10 16:17
I believe it to be one of the most important issues on the table here. We know that moral injury is a component of mental wellness. I'm not sure if you've been introduced to that term with regard to it being a component of post-traumatic stress injury or disorder or operational stress injuries.
Certainly, we have seen it be an aggravating factor in recent suicide cases for veterans who have served in Afghanistan, many of whom have questions about their service there and whether or not it.... Given that the entire world is now looking with interest to determine the outcome of that mission, in the absence of government recognition of that service in Afghanistan, veterans are left to their own devices to fall back on media statements that it was a waste and a failure. Therefore, if you pulled the trigger and killed someone, or if you lost a fellow soldier in combat or suffered an injury yourself, posing the question to yourself as to whether it may not have been worth it in the first instance is a powerful burden to put on someone.
That's Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a case where there has been some degree of public recognition, even if it's grassroots recognition from the people of Canada, as well as the government, at least in the early years of the war. But when I mention the case of injury to the soul, I think mainly about those veterans who served in the 1990s, my own generation, and not just from personal bias but from an awareness that at the end of the Cold War, we saw a tremendous spike in global conflict and a tremendous ratcheting up of the level of violence. I'm sure Sean can attest to this too, from the look of the ribbons he's wearing on his chest, that peacekeeping became peacemaking. I'm sure you're familiar with this phenomenon. We see too the spike in mental illness and mental injuries and claims in Veterans Affairs as a result of the massive growth in exposure to combat trauma in Somalia, in the former Yugoslavia, in Cambodia and of course in Rwanda.
Marie-Chantal Girard
View Marie-Chantal Girard Profile
Marie-Chantal Girard
2021-05-10 15:33
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In the spirit of reconciliation, I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are speaking to you today from the traditional unceded territories.
My name is Marie-Chantal Girard, and I am the assistant deputy minister of the pensions and benefits sector. I am joined by Tolga Yalkin, assistant deputy minister of workplace policies and programs at the Treasury Board Secretariat.
In mid-March, many of the nearly 300,000 federal public servants began working from home virtually overnight.
Many continued their day-to-day tasks, delivering information, programs and services to Canadians.
A number of them were also asked to take on new work to support the government's response to the pandemic, including implementing public health preparedness and response measures, supports for citizens and businesses impacted by the crisis, and much more.
For example, more than a thousand federal public servants volunteered to staff the call centre for the Canadian emergency relief benefit.
Many other public servants are continuing to play an enabling role in supporting the delivery of government programs and services, including building up and maintaining a reliable information technology infrastructure to support remote work.
At the Treasury Board Secretariat, officials continue to support the government's response to the pandemic. They are managing the supply cycle of government planning and reporting, providing guidance to deputy heads for the management of human resources, and providing policy directions to departments in a whole range of other areas.
My colleague and I are here to answer your questions related to the human resources management of the public service during the pandemic.
The office of the chief human resources officer has been providing guidance to deputy heads on overall human resources management throughout the pandemic. In doing so, we continue to be guided by the advice of public health authorities, including the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada's public service occupational health program, on all issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccination.
Like all Canadians, the vast majority of federal employees have already been or will be vaccinated according to the vaccination program in the province or territory in which they reside.
In light of the prevailing public health guidance, public service employees will largely continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future. For employees in key federal workplaces, the Government of Canada is expanding the use of rapid tests for screening purposes. Those in workplaces where there is a higher risk of exposure will be offered rapid tests on a voluntary basis, administered by trained personnel.
Within the Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer, there is an acknowledgement that, beyond the immediate physical health risks posed by the global pandemic, there are, and will continue to be, both short- and long-term psychological impacts for employees in the public sector, just as we are seeing in the broader Canadian society.
Steps continue to be taken, and active communications through a number of avenues are ensured so that public servants are aware of the supports available to them. These include enhanced access to mental health support, tools and guidance, and information and training sessions to help them navigate the challenges they face.
Temporary changes were made to the federal public service health care plan, expanding the list of covered service providers to include psychotherapists and social workers, and removing the requirement for a prescription for required paramedical services or extending the validity of the current prescription.
Temporary measures were also put in place to facilitate more flexible and alternative work arrangements and to support employees who are unable to work remotely. In addition, the COVID-19 and mental health virtual resource hub was launched. It provides free and accessible resources, supports and tools for employees, and is open to all Canadians.
While we continue to prioritize mental health and apply a mental health lens to much of what is done, employees face different mental health issues in their day-to-day environment. The goal is to ensure everyone finds the support they need.
The pandemic has not impacted all Canadians equally. In the federal public service, diversity, accessibility and inclusion are a priority, and much work remains to be done.
At the Treasury Board Secretariat, a number of actions have been taken over the past year to support departmental efforts in this area: first, the publication of new disaggregated workforce data and, last month, the launch of a new online interactive data visualization tool; second, the creation of the centre on diversity and inclusion in the office of the chief human resources officer, which leads new and innovative initiatives, does recruitment and talent management, and coordinates and co-develops solutions with stakeholders; third, the launch of the federal speaker's forum on diversity and inclusion to provide a platform for diverse public servants to share their lived experience; and finally, the implementation of the mentorship plus program, which pairs employees from diverse backgrounds with executive mentors and sponsors.
Public servants provide important programs and services to Canadians, and we are continually looking at ways to improve supports and resources available to them.
As has been the case thus far, any guidance on return to work sites will be guided by science, and developed in collaboration with deputy heads and in consultation with bargaining agents. We will, of course, adjust as the science evolves.
With that, we would be happy to answer questions members may have.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Tolga Yalkin
View Tolga Yalkin Profile
Tolga Yalkin
2021-05-10 15:52
Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to take that question.
There are, obviously, a number of different ways in which Treasury Board Secretariat has supported deputy heads who have the authority and are accountable for the administration of their organizations.
For example, on the issue of equipment, a number of questions were raised early in the pandemic as to how and under what circumstances deputy heads should be considering the elaboration of policies for equipping their public servants in a pandemic. Treasury Board Secretariat provided guidance, I believe in April of last year, on equipping employees. It helped to establish consistent and uniform norms that the departments could then apply, depending on their own context.
A series of guidance has been provided on the duty to accommodate. I believe Madam Girard raised that in her remarks. That was key to ensuring that in a remote working context, we are are abiding by our commitments under the Canadian Human Rights Act to ensure that employees who need reasonable accommodations are adequately accommodated.
A whole host of guidance has been provided on mental health, including a mental health hub that has been developed for employees. I believe it has garnered over 300,000 unique page views, which I think is a testament to the importance of that guidance.
Mr. Chair, I could go on, but perhaps I'll stop there. I'm happy to answer any additional questions.
Debi Daviau
View Debi Daviau Profile
Debi Daviau
2021-05-10 16:41
Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. My name is Debi Daviau, and I am president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, or PIPSC, the union that represents some 60,000 mainly federal public service professionals across Canada.
I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to present our views on this exceptionally important issue. I would be happy to answer any and all questions you may have following my presentation.
I would first like to highlight how tens of thousands of dedicated public servants have continued to faithfully serve Canadians since the start of the pandemic. For example, PIPSC members built the systems to deliver the financial support programs desperately needed by their fellow Canadians. They helped thousands of stranded Canadians to return home. Our members worked miracles to get personal protective equipment to those who needed it. We built the technical infrastructure to allow other public servants to continue their work from the safety of their homes. Our health care professionals took to the front lines, and our scientists pivoted to focus on fighting COVID-19.
Right now a small percentage of our members still remain in their regular workplaces. They provide critical services, for example, health care in prisons and in remote communities, meteorological forecasting and IT support. Overall, though, approximately 90% of our members are currently working from their home offices.
In general terms, we are reasonably satisfied with how the government has handled the crisis's impact on its employees. Our representatives at all levels, from steward to me as president, have been in regular and frequent contact with their ministerial or departmental counterparts to identify specific concerns and fix specific problems.
There have been no layoffs of our members, and in some cases we've been able to come to an agreement with management to ensure the organization's continued operations and viability until the crisis is behind us for good.
I can't pretend there haven't been issues with individual departments or even local managers misinterpreting or simply ignoring Treasury Board directives. Yes, there have been a number of inconsistencies across Canada when it comes to implementing safety protocols and around our members working from home, but overall, I'll give the government a passing grade so far.
At this point, the main concern is one of adapting to the new work reality and to what the “new normal” will be like for the public service. It's about giving employees the choice to work at home or in an office, whether a satellite location or their regular workplace.
This means ensuring proper employer support for home offices and telework, making sure employees working from home have the equipment they need to do their job. For those who can't or don't want telework, it means ensuring that any future Government of Canada workplaces are designed with safety and health considerations at the forefront.
Just as important, it also means a big change in the public service work culture. It's no secret that many managers still don't trust their employees to work remotely, despite their demonstrated success in continuing to serve Canadians for the past year and a half. This will require a great deal of management training.
Also, because of the incredibly negative impact the pandemic has had on people's mental health and their work-life balance, the employer must develop new tools for ensuring the wellness of public service employees.
That's our overall reaction to the government's approach on COVID and its effects on employees to date. However, I also have some very specific points that I'd like to bring to the committee's attention today.
They are related to identifying which existing collective agreement provisions need to be modified or tweaked to ensure that public service managers have the ability to be flexible with employees while still respecting our contracts.
Our first concern on that front is about leave with pay, also known as code 699, which is getting lots of airtime today.
The vast majority of federal public servants have been able to work through this crisis without requiring extra leave. However, those who need more flexibility because of caregiving duties, to deal with health risks or who cannot perform their tasks at home, can use code 699 to apply for their leave.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was more use of code 699 than now, because many federal public servants didn't have access to the tools to do their jobs from home at the time. I know that historically public servants are many commentators' preferred targets, but despite what you may have heard, to date the use of code 699 has in fact been minimal—a drop in the bucket, so to speak. When it's needed, it's needed. It's that simple.
It's also a fact that women, caregivers and those with health risks need access to code 699 leave to cope with the pandemic. It's broadly recognized that the burden of child care and financial repercussions in the COVID era has disproportionately fallen on women, but the Treasury Board proceeded, even after conducting a gender-based analysis and over the objections of bargaining agents, to make changes to code 699 that introduced a distinction between health issues and caregiving duties. The net result is that it's now more difficult for our members to access 699.
We find this so wrong that we have written to the President of the Treasury Board, the Minister of Finance and the Minister for Women and Gender Equality, urging them to reverse this decision. We have also filed policy grievances on this issue, as have other bargaining agents.
Our second concern is about the duty to accommodate. At this point, it's very clear that the employer's duty to accommodate extends beyond the traditional workplace to include remote work and telework. We need to determine the most appropriate and reasonable accommodation in individual cases. This could include a combination of existing provisions augmented by temporary measures. Clear and concise guidelines on this are needed right away.
Our third concern revolves around hours of work provisions. They must be adapted in the future to reflect the high reliance on remote work, both during the pandemic and in the foreseeable future.
Before I conclude my remarks, I want to emphasize how critical it is for the Treasury Board and individual departments and agencies to continue to consult and work closely with bargaining agents to ensure that all these points are being addressed. The government's response to the pandemic and its treatment of federal workers has been commendable so far. Let's not change that now.
I'd like to thank you for your time. I would be pleased to answer your questions, as would my senior adviser, Emily Watkins.
View Gudie Hutchings Profile
Lib. (NL)
Thank you to both of the witnesses for being here for this incredible conversation.
I'm from Newfoundland and Labrador, and I think it was 2018 that my province recognized midwifery. I come from a very rural riding, as my colleagues hear me say all the time. We're promoting mental health, telehealth and rural health, but you can't really deliver a baby over the Internet, so the uptake and the interest are incredible.
I have a story. I have a nephew and his wife who live probably two hours from any major hospital, and when she was due—and again she was a safe pregnancy—they had to move into a community where she was able to be closer to a hospital.
How do you think midwifery services contribute to women's mental health throughout their pregnancy and delivery? I know that my niece-in-law was totally stressed that they had to pack up and move and go to a place. They were looking for a midwife in the area where they live, but one wasn't available at that time.
I'd love to have your thoughts on that.
Lisa Morgan
View Lisa Morgan Profile
Lisa Morgan
2021-05-06 11:20
Certainly that is our dream. That's what the Canadian Association of Midwives would say: a midwife in every community. We know we're most successful when we train people from the community to return to the community and when we remove people from community for as little time as possible, when clinical training can be done within the community that person plans to serve.
You mentioned one aspect, having that caregiver close by for checkups, visits or support, but it's also for the connections. It's called continuity of care when you develop a relationship with the person you're caring for. We are on a pager 24-7, and those calls, those mental health concerns, those check-ins that you can do with your midwife if you're not well.... We pay really particular attention postpartum. We care for the mother-baby diet until six weeks postpartum. We're talking to the family about postpartum depression. We're talking to that person about reaching out to us and about the supports that we can help with.
We also know that some of that mental health stuff around pregnancy and postpartum is around emergencies, processing and lack of information, so we really try to do a good job with debriefing the birth, why what happened happened and what questions we could answer. We also know that goes a long way in terms of reconciling what happened and what needed to happen, because we have the evidence to say that good births are not really about that unmedicated normal vaginal birth that goes straightforward. It's about that person feeling involved in the decision-making. There are good Caesarian sections. You just have to understand the reasons, have your questions answered and have that relationship and that trust.
When we talk about mental health, I think that goes a long way.
View Patty Hajdu Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to return to committee.
As you mentioned, I'm joined today by officials from Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, CFIA and CIHR. We are here to update you on the main estimates for the health portfolio.
We know, as we continue to respond to COVID-19, that some areas in Canada have seen an increase in cases, some areas in Canada have had to apply additional public health measures and some areas in Canada have seen increased hospitalizations. We remain focused on one goal, and that's to help Canadians through COVID-19—to help provinces and territories reduce transmission in communities, to decrease the number of people getting sick, and of course to decrease the number of people ending up in hospitals and, sadly, passing away as a result of COVID-19.
We know that this is a lot of work on behalf of all levels of government, and indeed not just government but community organizations, unions, employers and everyone working together in a team Canada approach. The most important things for us to remain focused on now are to reduce community transmission, increase access to vaccination and make sure that we stay focused on increasing vaccine uptake. We need to make sure the vaccines are available to people in a variety of different ways so that they can access them when it's their turn.
I have to say that we've been so impressed by Canadians' desire to be vaccinated and their willingness to step up when it is indeed their turn. As we can see, as more vaccines have been arriving in Canada week over week, we are now a leading G20 country, the second in the G20 in terms of administering the first dose. That's good news, Mr. Chair, because we know that vaccinations save lives and reduce the spread in communities, along with the other things that we know all too well.
In terms of actual hard numbers, that means nearly 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered. I have good news, and it's reflected in case rates and death rates. Eighty per cent of those aged 70 to 79 and 86% of those aged 80 and over have received vaccination. I can tell you that there is a sense of relief, especially among people in those age groups who have felt so worried and so scared, and of course among the people who love them, that they are protected as provinces and territories work together to reduce transmission in communities.
Of course, as all of you in HESA know, Canada is focused on a population health approach to vaccination. What does that mean? It means using vaccination as a powerful tool to reduce cases in communities and to stop people from getting sick and dying.
We have two overarching goals: to stop the spread and to save lives. Because of this strategy, there are more Canadians protected now than a month ago. We are looking forward to a very busy month of May. This month alone, millions of doses will arrive in the country and go directly into arms through the strong partnership with provinces, territories, local public health officials and other really important partners like pharmacists and family physicians.
While vaccination programs are scaling up, we have to continue to be cautious and vigilant about following local public health guidance. That does mean the things that we know help prevent the spread of the virus. As we have learned, that means physical distancing; the wearing of masks, especially in crowded and indoor settings; being mindful of how and where people gather; really thinking of each other during this time; and continuing to pull together as Canadians to make sure that the entire community remains safe. If there's something I've learned, Mr. Chair—or been reminded of, I think is more appropriate—it's the importance of collective action to fight a virus like this. It's that we cannot do this alone, that communities can't do this alone, that people can't do this alone, but that together we can actually get a lot further.
Today we will share the health portfolio's spending plans for the months ahead.
As you know, budget 2021 proposes significant investments in a number of health priorities, from increasing research and biomanufacturing to improving long-term care and continuing our investments—significant investments, I would say—in mental health and substance use supports.
These investments will help us finish the fight against COVID-19 and will help Canadians to see, in a healthier and more equitable way, a healthier future in their communities.
Maintaining Canadians' health and safety continues to be my priority—indeed, all of our agencies' priority—in the months to come. The main estimates I'm presenting today reflect this, and they outline the work we are doing to achieve these goals.
Over the next year, Health Canada will work with the provinces and territories to help improve health systems for all Canadians. This work includes measures to strengthen the health care sector through investments in long-term care and supportive care settings. We will also address mental health and problematic substance use through continued investments in home and community care and in mental health and addiction services, including specific investments to help Canadians during COVID-19.
I want to give a particular thank you to the many organizations that work with people who are struggling with a variety of mental health issues and a variety of problematic substance use issues. These community organizations and providers have been there for Canadians during this dreadful time, and their work is tremendously valuable to all of us.
Our world-class regulators will continue their work to get Canadians the medicines, vaccines and medical devices they need. That work includes creating a critical drug reserve to assist with COVID-19 treatments.
For the past year, the Public Health Agency of Canada has been focused on the pandemic response. Whether it's on vaccines, on research or on specific COVID-19 supports, the agency has been working day and night—all of the folks in the agency have been working day and night—to protect Canadians. This work will continue well beyond the pandemic.
The safety of our food supply is also always a priority in a pandemic, and of course beyond. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency protects Canadians from food safety risks, supports our food supply chain and safeguards the health and safety of people working in the food manufacturing and distribution industries. I want to thank all of the workers at CFIA for their ongoing work, oftentimes in very challenging situations, as we know. In meat packing plants, where there have been significant challenges to prevent the spread of COVID, I know that inspection agents and many other professionals have been working to make those workplaces safer and to keep food safe for Canadians.
After a year of living with COVID-19, the importance of investing in health and medical research, if it wasn't evident before, is now, Mr. Chair. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is supporting Canadian research and researchers, and our investments will make sure that they have a strong and central role in ensuring that science returns to a place of prominence in government policy-making.
I am so relieved, Mr. Chair, that our government made those investments in 2015, after a decade of attack on scientists and researchers. We made those investments in 2015, and they turned out to be critical. We're going to continue to strengthen Canadian research through the CIHR, through the researcher community that they support, to make sure that we have access to the best evidence and the best science on a range of health issues.
Mr. Chair, my priority is Canadians' health and safety. As we face this wave of the virus, as we see the finish line, we know there's more work to do. The plans I'm talking about show what we have to do, how we have to invest and how we have to continue to pull together. I know that Canadians will get through this, but we have to work together to get through it so that we can save lives, stop the spread and protect Canadians' health throughout COVID-19 and beyond.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I look forward to your questions.
Mark Farrant
View Mark Farrant Profile
Mark Farrant
2021-04-27 12:44
Thank you.
Honourable Chair, vice-chairs, and members of the justice and human rights committee, thank you for the invitation to appear before you today as part of your important study on COVID-19 and its impact on the judicial system.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every industry and sector like nothing in our history, and our courts and justice system are no exception. Prior to the crisis our courts were already stressed with enormous backlogs and delays in many provinces and territories; the closure of courthouses across the country as part of the emergency public health measures has compounded the problem further, delaying trials and due process.
Once regular court operations resume, there will be an unprecedented requirement to begin empanelling juries across the country. While responding to a summons is mandatory, many Canadians will be very unwilling or unable to participate, for very real reasons.
During the first wave of the pandemic, the Canadian Juries Commission conducted a national opinion poll and found that Canadians were more willing to donate blood or volunteer for a community organization than to serve on a jury when emergency measures lift. Similarly, Canadians rated jury duty lower in terms of civic importance than donating blood or volunteering within the community. These opinions are a direct result of decades of underinvestment in jury duty across the country and of not keeping pace with the modern world and its challenges.
As the crisis comes to an end, many Canadians will be unwilling or unable to respond to a jury summons, yet responding will be expected of them. Transitioning out of the period of unemployment, layoffs and tenuous employment, for many Canadians the focus will now be on their jobs, families and availability for work. Many will be experiencing financial hardships not seen in decades and will still have family care commitments that will not have expired and may have been exacerbated by COVID-19 health issues. Canadian workplaces will be less willing and sympathetic towards supporting employees during time spent in court, given their own economic fragility and desire to revitalize operations. This will put mounting pressure on employees to respect their employers more than their summons.
Alarming data has emerged during the pandemic that highlights the significant worsening of Canadians' mental health. It has raised concerns among health care professionals of a looming echo mental health crisis. Statistics Canada has observed Canadians reporting increases in anxiety, depression and PTSD, as well as alarming increases in suicidal ideation as a result of the pandemic. Reported substance abuse and alcohol consumption among Canadians has increased across the pandemic. All reported figures are higher among vulnerable communities, those with existing mental illness, the indigenous community, the LGBTQ community and, sadly, among our young adults.
In 2017, I was very pleased to appear before this committee as part of its groundbreaking study on jury duty mental health and the publication of its landmark report, “Improving Support for Jurors in Canada”, in 2018. The 11 recommendations contained in that report stand today. They include providing more information to prospective jurors about jury duty, providing psychological support to jurors, increasing daily jury pay to $120 per day and federal funding to the provinces and territories to implement the findings of that report.
It is now almost three years since the publication of this report, and sadly, very little has been done since to see these recommendations universally adopted.
The Canadian Juries Commission was born out of those recommendations to represent and support Canadians on jury duty and in coroners' inquests and to provide programs directly to jurors to assist them in their roles, working with the provinces and territories and the judiciary to improve jury duty.
The recent federal budget detailed significant investments in mental health to meet the challenges of COVID-19, vital investments to combat systemic racism and improve access to justice across Canada, and also investments to repair our economy and grow back post-pandemic. These investments must be met with similar investments in jury duty, which is the last remaining mandatory civic duty in our democracy. This current crisis will only serve to compound and deepen foundational concerns for jury duty identified by this committee and the Canadian Juries Commission.
Once selected, jurors are identified as judges of the facts and are exposed to the same graphic and disturbing evidence as others in the court as part of their role. However, unlike the judge, legal counsel, court staff, police and first responders, they are not afforded access to new and evolving evidence-based treatments to assist them after the verdict is delivered. Jurors are the group in the court most vulnerable to developing mental ill health, as jury duty is not a vocation, has no training and affords no organizational support, yet is exposed to the same graphic evidence, and without a support network.
Juror mental health requires a specific intervention through evidence-based assessments and treatments and trauma-informed approaches, and it must be given the same priority everywhere and made available to all regions of the country.
Those concerns for juror mental health predate the pandemic. Now Canadians may be returning to court experiencing elevated mental ill health from the pandemic and exposed to new trauma in the court.
It is vital that we invest in mental health.
Thank you.
View Michael Cooper Profile
CPC (AB)
Thank you.
I would concur that the amount of funding we're talking about here with respect to juror pay and with respect to implementing other recommendations that would go a long way to support jurors is a pittance, having regard to the firehose of money that we have seen showered in this budget. Some of it very much needed funding; I don't want to minimize that reality. This, though, would be a mere pittance.
Another area that you cited is mental health and issues around mental health that jurors face in going through, in some cases, horrific trials, including stressors from not being familiar with the judicial system and being away from family and work, among many other factors.
One recommendation in the report from 2018 was to carve out an exception to the jury secrecy rule. Right now, jurors who are suffering from mental health issues arising from their jury service aren't able to talk about all aspects of their jury service, namely the deliberation process, which often can be the most stressful aspect.
I introduced a bill in the last Parliament to implement the recommendation to carve out a narrow exception to the jury secrecy rule so that jurors who are suffering from mental health issues could consult a mental health or other medical professional bound by confidentiality, thereby protecting the integrity of the jury secrecy rule while ensuring that jurors can get the help they need. There was again unanimous support for that bill, but it died in the Senate prior to the last election. I worked with Senator Boisvenu to introduce a bill in the Senate, but it's been stuck there.
The government has introduced Bill C-23, which touches on issues around jurors in a COVID context. Would you see it as beneficial that Bill C-23 be expanded to include the substance of what is in now Bill S-212 so that we can get this done, finally, which is something everyone seems to agree to?
Mark Farrant
View Mark Farrant Profile
Mark Farrant
2021-04-27 13:01
I absolutely agree with that statement. This is the third time we have tried to see this bill and this amendment to the Criminal Code pass. There is no reason it should not be added to Bill C-23.
I have spoken to members across all parties. I've spoken to members of the judiciary. I've spoken to lawyers, both Crown and defence, across the country, who all agree that this is a common sense piece of legislation that would demonstrate to Canadians another investment in jury duty and an important contribution to post-trial recovery.
Many jurors have said that it wasn't the trial, nor was it the evidence, that hurt them mentally; it was the emotional trauma of reaching a decision or not being able to reach a decision in a truly public and difficult case.
Rick Lundy
View Rick Lundy Profile
Rick Lundy
2021-04-26 11:11
Thank you very much for having me today.
I'm here representing four different organizations. I'm the general manager of Huntington Hills Community Association. I'm president and founder of Minds Over Matter mental health society. I am founder of Open Arms patient advocacy society, and I'm the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Calgary.
The first area I would like to talk about is in the community, and that's with Huntington Hills. We at Huntington Hills are an outlet for many human service areas—we were up until recently. We had a lone parent network, a parent link and a north central resource centre for all of the north of Calgary. In these programs we help families, especially single parents, find the resources they need and to get tools and go through programs to be the best parents they possibly can. For homelessness, homeless and low-income individuals in northwest Calgary, we help them get the resources they need for the basics of life. We also have a school care program here, so we deal with a lot of the little ones in society as well.
Our mental health organization is called Minds over Matter mental health. We deal with seniors, cultural groups, businesses and organizations and children and youth.
I am the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and I have been for the last couple of years. We bring awareness to drinking and driving as well as preventative measures to stop or slow down impaired driving and victim assistance for those individuals who have been affected by drinking and driving as well.
Looking at what COVID has done in the community, here at the community association we deliver food and basics to single moms and seniors. I've had first-hand experience dealing with seniors. The thing I can say first and foremost is that many seniors have talked as I'm delivering their food—because I've done it myself—of the fear of not knowing how they're going to get their next meal and the fear of not knowing how or when they're going to get the resources they need to survive. A lot of these seniors don't have any other family or friends to do it. They're relying on a community association to deliver food.
The second thing is the lack of resources. In dealing with these three human resources that we did, the biggest problem was connecting people with food banks. I had one individual come in, and he was from Africa, just new to the country, and he had no food or diapers for his family. We had to try to find resources for him. Unfortunately, during COVID, those resources weren't even open. He phoned me back and he commented on the fact that he left messages at the numbers we had given him, and nobody got back to him. There was a huge concern, not only about getting individuals these resources but also the accessibility wasn't there. There was a lot of fear in those individuals as well.
Going into the mental health organization dealing with seniors, my specialty is seniors within this organization. In talking to these seniors, I know there is a fear of COVID. They're in the last years of their lives. They've been isolated. The isolation for seniors has been a huge problem as well. Pre-COVID, 6.2 million Canadians suffered from mental illness in this country. The numbers going forward will be staggering as will accessibility, because the biggest problem in mental illness is the lack of accessibility within mental health and mental illness.
In regard to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, you would think, with all the restrictions that government has put in place, that impaired driving would be substantially down. It is a bit down, but it's insignificant. Alcohol consumption and cannabis consumption during COVID is on the rise. We work with the Calgary Police Service, and the concern post-COVID is going to be impaired driving, because people have been sitting in their houses. That's going to be a bigger problem than it was before.
People are still drinking, and people are still driving. The amount of alcohol and cannabis consumption has actually increased. We just had a case last week of a 38-year-old who was drinking and driving and killed somebody. We're very concerned about where this is going.
Looking at the problems in the community, they're vast. We're an organization that knows the resources and understands the system, and we're having trouble accessing the system to get help for people in all the capacities that I mentioned earlier.
COVID has been devastating to this community, the community of Huntington Hills, which is in northwest Calgary. It's been devastating in terms of the mental health and mental illness that we're seeing, and I just don't know where this is going.
We had an economy that was challenged. Then we had COVID, and the accessibility of getting mental health resources for anybody—children, youth, seniors, single parents—is horrific. I feel very badly for individuals who are trying to get that help because it's just not accessible.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
View John Barlow Profile
CPC (AB)
View John Barlow Profile
2021-04-26 12:30
You bring up my next question. I talked about this on Friday. I had a young girl in my riding call me in tears about her brother who had committed suicide. I had another one yesterday. A 29-year-old young man in my riding committed suicide yesterday. These are becoming all too common.
When speaking with some of the artists—Mariya Stokes and Lyndsay Butler in my riding—you can tell what stress is on these young artists and what anxiety there is. Maybe you can touch on that a bit. What has been the mental health aspect of seeing your entire industry and your entire livelihood, everything you've worked for, come to a screeching halt, with no light at the end of the tunnel as we continue to see lockdowns and restrictions?
George Canyon
View George Canyon Profile
George Canyon
2021-04-26 12:30
As a Canadian citizen and a very proud Canadian—one million per cent Canadian through and through—one of the things that most disappoints me is that we didn't take a deep breath and look at what could be a huge travesty for our mental health, especially when mental health is first and foremost in the minds of most Canadians. In our industry, especially right now, because we have not recovered in the slightest—not 0.001%, not at all—mental health is a huge issue.
Just in talking to my team, which I try to maintain contact with to make sure that everybody is good, I see that everyone is trying to hold their head up and put a smile on—albeit fake. This is what we do in our industry. We're in the industry of hearing no. I've heard “no” so many times that I just kind of expect it now. When you're an artist and you're trying to get record deals or you're trying to get gigs and you're trying to climb that corporate ladder....
Right now, though, the artists I've talked with as of late, they just feel lost. It's not so much the artist in me. It's my family who made the sacrifice for us to get to where we are today after 30 years—my wife and my children. The sacrifices they've made, not just with my wife having to work three jobs at one time so I could play on the weekends, but with my children not having their dad there for the first day of school, not having their dad there when they learned how to ride a bicycle.... All those things add up to mental health, and now, seeing their dad just not being able to work at what they have been a really big part of my success in....
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Hello to my colleagues, and a warm welcome to our witnesses, a Cape Breton—Canso welcome.
My questions are going to be directed to Mr. Grant.
First and foremost, Mr. Grant, I consider you and your organization an expert on youth and youth programming.
For many years in the first part of my career, I worked with a gentleman by the name of Gordie Gosse, and Gordie was a great man. He passed in 2019. He worked in Whitney Pier as the youth programmer in Whitney Pier and later went on to become an NDP cabinet minister in the provincial government. I learned so much from him in terms of the importance of programming and the importance of community engagement.
This year, Mr. Grant, Canadians have made great sacrifices and, in particular, youth and children have given up, as you say, going to school with its going online, spending time with friends and really getting the most out of their adolescence and childhood. Public health measures in every province are implemented by public health officers, and they're important, but we do need more and varied supports, as you mentioned.
In particular, you hit upon something I think is really important, and that's the mental health amongst youth. They are already, I think you would agree, at a higher risk even without a global pandemic being thrown into the mix.
I'm wondering if you could tell me and tell the committee how important it is for children and youth in these times to have access to platforms like Wellness Together Canada, launched by our government, or the Kids Help Phone.
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:34
As we know, in being homeless, there's a high level of anxiety and a high degree of stress and addictions that come with that, and this is pre-pandemic, so adding the notion of a pandemic exacerbates an already challenging situation.
The need for the services you mentioned, the Kids Help Phone, etc., is critical during both times, and we've seen just with 310-COPE here in York region and the Canadian Mental Health Association, all of those organizations—
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:36
Okay.
As we know, pre-COVID, pre-pandemic, the need for mental health services for a homeless population was high to begin with. We know from research it is one of the challenges, whether it's a cause or an effect of being homeless. The Kids Help Phone services, the Canadian Mental Health Association services, 310-COPE and all those things were important pre-COVID, and then you add a pandemic, with a whole bunch of uncertainty for these young people. They've already experienced uncertainties in their lives and this just further exacerbates that.
One of the things it's important to note is that a lot of money does go into mental health and we've seen governments increase that funding, but we find many of those services are not accessible for a homeless population, for different reasons.
Sometimes with a youth population the definition of “youth” is different. For provincial services, it can be ages 16 to 24. For federal services, it's 14 to 29, and for some health services, it's to 18. Even from just an age demographic, it's hard to access some of those services. Then you have the unavailability of psychiatric care and psychiatrists who are able to diagnose, and follow-up support.
What we find is that homeless young people are even more marginalized in accessing the services and funding that goes into mental health, which is why the need for very specific services for this population is so important.
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
It's interesting you highlighted how the challenges are integrated, and so must be the solutions.
I was doing some research on your organization and I see you offer a large suite of programming. I'm just curious. Which of your programs has been the most popular as we navigate through this pandemic, and why do you think it is the case?
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:39
I'm not sure “popular” is the right word, but certainly—
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
“More utilized” would probably be better.
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:39
Yes. For sure, it's our mental health supports. As I mentioned, we saw a fivefold increase in the number of youth accessing mental health services. Pre-COVID, we were serving over 1,200 youth in our drop-in programs, but that number decreased. Therefore, you could maybe show a correlation between the lack of access to services adding to an increase in the need for a number of mental health services.
However, to answer your question, it is the need for mental health services that increased.
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