Health committee  I do agree with that recommendation. Currently, Canada spends around 7% of its health dollars on mental health. With the recent investments, over the next 10 years, if memory serves me, which it sometimes doesn't, that will bring us up to approximately 7.2%. What we are advocating for, if we are going to aim for parity between mental and physical health, is that it needs to go to at least 9%.

Health committee  Thank you very much for your question. I will try to answer the various parts of it. Certainly your initial comment about this being important to address upstream is critical. With regard to historical events impacting mental health and mental illness, you're absolutely right on that one as well.

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for having me here today. It's particularly timely, given that yesterday was Bell Let's Talk Day, about raising awareness about mental health. The year 2021 marks the 11th year for Bell Let's Talk, and it has a very different feel from what it had in previous years.

Agriculture committee  I think the short answer to that is, yes, there certainly can be. It has not been part of the mandate of the Mental Health Commission, but I can say that it is one that we would welcome. I believe we could do something to assist in that way, but up until now, it has not been part of the mandate of the commission.

Agriculture committee  There's no evidence to suggest that talking to somebody, if you have worries about them being suicidal, actually increases—in fact, it's quite the opposite. It is one of the components of the Roots of Hope, which is the program that I had mentioned.

Agriculture committee  Oh, yes. Absolutely.

Agriculture committee  I think that contagion is certainly an issue when you look at some of the first nation communities and among youth, and that is a very specific area. The commission has produced a document called Mindset, which is a guideline for reporters, about how to report on mental health issues and on suicide in particular.

Agriculture committee  The Mental Health Commission of Canada has not engaged in any particular study of that nature. We certainly have done a great deal of work on suicide, which is something that is insufficiently addressed in every sector across the country. I have no reason to believe agriculture would be any different.

Agriculture committee  To be honest with you, I'm not aware of any studies focused on what factors are creating this. I can tell you that isolation and poor or non-existent access to services deeply impact other populations, particularly in rural communities, and as far as the huge stigma goes, I cannot overemphasize the impact that has both with regard to governments providing services and in rural communities themselves.

Agriculture committee  I'll try my best. I really think that one of the key issues right now in Canada is suicide prevention. With suicide there is a direct correlation between that and the non-existent services. The impact of not having the right services is just terrible. The commission has reached out for a second time to the federal government.

Agriculture committee  We have actually trained thousands of first responders, including firefighters right across the country, for that specific reason. We use a self-assessment tool that was formerly called the Road to Mental Readiness and is now called The Working Mind. It addresses the issue of first responders having to deal with huge tragedies, including death, on an ongoing basis.

Agriculture committee  I can't give you those exact figures off the top of my head. I don't know them. But we have that information, and I will be very happy to send it on to the committee. We do have a national strategy for mental health. That was developed in 2012, and my fervent belief is that if we were able to implement the various components of that strategy, it would help all Canadians, including the agricultural community.

Agriculture committee  We simply don't have the programs. I mentioned one program called Strongest Families, out of Nova Scotia. It's being provided across the country in various sectors, yet there are huge communities that do not have access to it. New Zealand does. It has a program for families—as one specific example—in which children are having difficulties.

Agriculture committee  Yes. I think each time we do an adaptation of two of our training programs, The Working Mind and Mental Health First Aid, we learn something we can pass on to the next one. I think my biggest learning throughout all of this over the years has been with the issue of stigma. I'm not talking about stigma for farmers, although that is a very real thing.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Lack of access to services is a huge problem among the farming community and anyone right across Canada but particularly those in rural settings. The program I mentioned, called Roots of Hope, is something that.... Yes, it is important to have trained professionals, but in some of the smaller communities where we are seeing that program being rolled out right now, there's a thing called peer support work.