What will the Minister of Health include in mental health and addictions?

The Minister of Health has talked a lot about bringing mental health and addictions together. The Minister has been saying he will include both in one governance structure. I asked the Minister what he would include in mental health when he brings it together with addictions. At this point, it appears he does not have the answer. My question and his response is below:

Mr. Gerrard: One of the questions is mental health, or mental and brain health can be narrow or broader. What is the narrowness or the breadth of what is being considered under mental health and addictions?

Mr. Goertzen: I don't know that that's been entirely set out, in terms of the scope of it. I do know that the member, I believe, did a report on brain, mental health some time ago and provided it to us in the department. We accepted some recommendations. I think I wrote back to the member and told him that we accepted some of those recommendations and the department was acting on it.

So I don't see this as a particularly partisan issue. You know, I appreciated the work that he did, and we've taken some action on that. I'm sure he would think that there should be more done, and that's fine; that's part of the–this process, right? It's a push and pull in our Westminster democratic system, and that's good.

But there'll be more information in terms of the structure provided when we're able to provide it to him.

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