The Senate

Pursuant to notice of February 24, 2026, moved:

That the Senate recognize:

(a)that the World Health Organization and the Canadian Mental Health Association have identified mental health parity as a critical objective for an equitable health care system; and

(b)the urgent need to address disparities in mental health care access and coverage; and

That the Senate urge the Government of Canada to establish a federal legal framework that ensures mental health and addiction care are treated on an equal footing with physical health care.

She said: Honourable senators, it is an immense honour and privilege to bring forward this motion during Mental Illness Awareness Week, October 4-10, and close to World Mental Health Day, which will be on October 10.

On February 24, 2026, I rose in this chamber to draw the Senate’s attention to two urgent realities: first, that the World Health Organization and the Canadian Mental Health Association have identified mental health parity as a critical objective for an equitable health care system; and, second, that persistent disparities in access to and coverage of mental health and substance use health care demand urgent attention.

Today, this motion calls on the Senate to urge the Government of Canada to establish a federal legal framework that ensures mental health and substance use health care are treated on an equal footing with physical health care.

As we address the challenges facing mental health and substance use care, we must acknowledge First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, who have stewarded these lands, and consider how cultural and historical contexts, including colonialism and systemic discrimination, continue to shape the mental health of Indigenous Peoples and marginalized communities across Canada.

I would like to sincerely thank my team, my Senate colleagues, the Library of Parliament analysts and the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer and its staff for their research, advice and support. I also want to recognize the contribution of the workers, people with lived experience and community partners who met with me and encouraged this work. They include representatives from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Psychiatric Association, the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Association of Social Workers, the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, the Chiefs of Ontario, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and many other stakeholders.

Colleagues, many of you will remember that on June 19, 2024, I launched a Senate inquiry into mental health, substance use health and addiction parity across the lifespan. In September 2024, I convened a round table co-sponsored by my esteemed former colleagues Senators Kutcher and Seidman, and moderated by Dr. Paul Roumeliotis. I thank Senator Black for his speech in support of the inquiry, as well as my colleagues who intended to speak before prorogation and the subsequent election, which caused the inquiry to fall from the Order Paper. This motion allows us to continue that important work. It brings an issue of national importance to the forefront of our collective consciousness and invites us to work together on one of the defining priorities of our time.

In making the case for this motion, I want to take you back to the speech delivered by Prime Minister Mark Carney at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026. That speech reverberated around the world. It set the stage for Canada to lead, not only in thought, natural resources, trade, energy, agriculture and artificial intelligence, but also in shaping a more peaceful, inclusive prosperity for all.

More recently, on September 8, 2026, I listened with great interest to the “Forward Guidance” video addressing the trade war and the challenging times in which we now live. The Prime Minister placed those challenges in a historical context and reminded us that we are masters of our own fate. We can embody our own values and live sovereignly in our own skin and in our own country. He spoke of resilience, strength and unity. To meet the challenges ahead and to prosper, we must build stronger, more resilient health and mental health systems together. That is precisely what this motion is about.

Investments in major infrastructure, trade diversification and other strategic initiatives are vital, but we cannot overstate the foundational economic importance of a mentally healthy workforce. Advances in artificial intelligence and innovation in health care, especially brain health, which encompasses mental health across the lifespan, can place Canada at the global frontier of the mental and brain health economy.

Mental health parity is an idea whose time has come. Indeed, it is long overdue. It has been a policy objective of many of the organizations and stakeholders I mentioned.

For more than 30 years, I have practised as a pediatrician specializing in children’s learning, behavioural and mental health. I witnessed firsthand the long waits and the shortage of inpatient, outpatient and community-based services. I also saw the sometimes devastating consequences for children, adolescents and their families.

I remember a suicidal child who tried to jump from a moving car because of not wanting to go to school. We later learned that the child had a severe, previously undiagnosed learning disability. I remember a parent living with a substance use disorder who could not obtain child care and, therefore, could not attend outpatient treatment.

Today, we also know more about the effects of social media and online gambling on child and youth mental health, development and learning, as well as the risks posed by unregulated and untested chatbots.

In 2024, the Canadian Mental Health Association released its groundbreaking report The State of Mental Health in Canada. I was honoured to co-sponsor its launch here in the Senate, and many of you attended. The report asks a simple but powerful question: We aren’t expected to pay for life-saving cancer care, so why are we paying for life-saving mental health care? I encourage you to read it.

In 1953, Canadian physician Dr. Brock Chisholm, the first director-general of the World Health Organization, coined the phrase, “Without mental health, there can be no true physical health.” The World Health Organization defines mental health as:

. . . a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn and work well and contribute to their community.

The stated objective of the Canada Health Act is to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers in order to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of Canadians; yet, the promise of equal regard for mental and physical well-being has never been fully realized. That is what this motion seeks to address and why it matters so deeply.

The evidence is clear: Mental health, brain health and physical health are inseparable. People with type 2 diabetes, for example, are twice as likely to experience depression as the general population. Among people living with depression, the risk of heart attack is more than twice that of the general population. Children with medical complexity face a heightened risk of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions and rely more heavily on health and social services.

Our scientific understanding of early brain development and its effects on resilience, lifelong health, social well-being, education, justice and economic outcomes is equally clear.

Colleagues, since I first placed this motion on the Order Paper in 2025, an important new development has reinforced its central premise. In March 2026, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, right here in Ottawa, announced a Canadian clinical practice guideline calling on clinicians to treat heart, brain and mental health conditions together rather than in isolation. That integrated approach — a whole-of-government, whole-of-society and whole-person framework — is at the heart of this motion and of the inquiry and round table recommendations.

The 2021 mandate letter to the then Minister of Health called for a permanent Canada Mental Health Transfer to increase the availability of mental health services and “. . . to ensure that mental health care is treated as a full and equal part of Canada’s universal public health care system.”

It is easy to lose focus amid competing crises at home and abroad, but clear, sustained policy and legislation can deliver long-term social and economic returns. Canada directs only 6.3% to 7% of health spending to mental health, compared with approximately 15% in France and 11% in Germany.

In 2017, the federal government demonstrated leadership by working with the provinces and territories to establish shared health priorities, dedicated funding, action plans, data collection and accountability measures. Colleagues, that funding is scheduled to end in 2027. Canadians deserve to know the government’s long-term strategy for mental health and substance use health — one of those shared priorities.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information was tasked with reporting annually on indicators and outcomes under the agreement. Its October 2025 report was unequivocal: “Many Canadians with mental health disorders are not having their needs met.”

We know that approximately 70% of mental health disorders begin in childhood or adolescence. In any given year, 6.7 million Canadians, 1 in 5, experience mental illness. By age 40, 1 in 2 Canadians has experienced or is experiencing a mental illness.

A 2026 CSA Group report entitled The Economic Cost of Mental Health in Canada estimates that poor mental health costs Canada $180 billion each year. Much of that cost reflects reactive, downstream spending after problems have escalated and spilled into systems never designed to manage them, like housing supports, police, correctional services and emergency departments.

If Canada remains on its current path, the annual cost of poor mental health is projected to reach $600 billion by 2050. That growing burden will further constrain productivity and Canada’s long-term economic potential.

The report identifies two essential reforms: first, achieve mental health parity so that mental health receives funding, coverage and accountability equal to physical health; and second, reorient the system toward prevention by moving resources upstream.

The Conference Board of Canada reports that, without timely investment, the lifetime cost associated with just one cohort of children who develop anxiety or depression at age 10 approaches $1 trillion. The Canadian Mental Health Association has further noted that, for every dollar invested in mental health, it can return between $4 and $10 to the economy.

Colleagues, this motion calls on the government to do what governments do best: provide federal leadership, collaborate on action, create durable policy and a legislative framework that reduces uncertainty, builds resilience and places mental and physical health on equal footing.

We know that health care delivery is largely a provincial and territorial responsibility. Any federal legislation must therefore be developed in consultation and cooperation with provinces, territories and Indigenous governing bodies, while respecting their jurisdictions and distinctions-based priorities.

In 2006, the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology released its landmark report, Out of the Shadows at Last: Transforming Mental Health, Mental Illness and Addiction Services in Canada. Twenty years later, colleagues, let us build on that important legacy.

Honourable colleagues, I urge you to add your voices to this debate and to support this motion calling on the Government of Canada to establish a federal legal framework that ensures mental health care and substance use health care are treated on an equal footing with physical health care.

To echo the Prime Minister, together, we can build a stronger, more resilient and more inclusive Canada. This is what the Senate does best: Through sober second thought, we call attention to urgent policy and legislative gaps and help chart a path forward.

Thank you. Meegwetch.