Honourable senators, before I delve into the substance of this motion, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every Canadian who is on the front line every single day, especially right now as we deal with a worldwide pandemic. Our first responders and front-line health-care workers are putting themselves at great risk, not only of contracting COVID-19 itself but also all the added stresses that come with the endless hours and the tragedy of what they see every day.

We know that because of this pandemic and the measures being taken to deal with it, mental health calls are on the rise, as are incidents of spousal and child abuse. Our first responders are the first to answer the call.

To those who are currently suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, I want to say that we see you, we thank you, and we want to assure you that you’ll be taken care of as well.

And for the fallen heroes who have succumbed to this pernicious mental health disease, we remember and thank all of you for your selfless service to your country and your fellow man. My thoughts are also with their grieving families — families like our friends Mary and Stephen Rix, who were with us every step of the way a couple of years ago as we passed Bill C-211. I want to say to Mary and Stephen, and all of those who have lost loved ones to post-traumatic stress disorder, your sons, daughters, parents, sisters and brothers were heroes, and they will be remembered as such.

On June 21, 2018, Bill C-211, An Act respecting a federal framework on post-traumatic stress disorder, received Royal Assent. Colleagues, as you may remember, this was a private member’s bill authored by member of Parliament Todd Doherty. I became the sponsor of the bill here in the Senate after hearing MP Doherty speak so passionately about it at national caucus and then again when we met in my office. I could see how heavily this was weighing on him, as we sat one evening and spoke about the toll PTSD was taking on our first responders and their loved ones. I could see this was deeply personal for him.

MP Doherty drafted this bill after the passing of one of his dear friends, Darren Anderson. Mr. Anderson was a 17-year veteran firefighter struggling with PTSD and, unfortunately, lost his battle. On September 15, 2018, Darren took his own life, leaving behind his wife and three children. He was considered by many in his community to be a hero, but even a hero can struggle at times; sadly, when they don’t have the help they need, they can fall.

This story is tragic, but it is far from the only one. All across this great country our first responders are in dire need of help, and that help isn’t always consistent.

Bill C-211 had one goal: to establish a framework for post-traumatic stress disorder, or what is commonly called PTSD, to ensure that each and every first responder has access to the same resources to deal with their mental health, no matter their location. Someone in Winnipeg, Saguenay or Toronto needs to have access to adequate treatment, and that includes their loved ones, too.

These men and women put themselves in harm’s way to help their fellow citizens in their most vulnerable moments. The least we can do for them is to provide them with adequate treatment when they themselves need it.

It is unconscionable for the people we rightly call heroes to be left to fend for themselves. Every morning, these individuals put on their uniforms knowing that this may be the last time they see their loved ones. They are prepared to risk everything because they feel it is their duty to serve and help others. Their actions are the epitome of altruism, and they deserve to be treated with dignity. It is therefore our responsibility to ensure that they have all the support they may need.

They are witnessing events so terrible that just reading about them is horrifying. They are the first people who arrive on these frightful scenes, and they must do all they can to save what is salvageable in those too-often unsalvageable and traumatic scenes.

Just to give you a sense of the distress first responders often feel, I want to share part Natalie Harris’s testimony, a former advanced-care paramedic in Ontario, when she appeared at committee on May 16, 2017:

It’s not normal to have a person ask you to just take their leg and arm off because they were experiencing so much pain from being trapped in a car with multiple open fractures all over their body. It’s not normal to learn that the patient who hanged himself the night before had a second noose waiting for his wife, had his son not called 911 at the right time. It’s not normal to witness a young woman, seven months pregnant, rub her belly with the only limb that could move as she had a stroke that would leave her disabled. It’s not normal to see the cellphone on the road beside the obviously dead driver, crushed between the pavement and the car, who was texting and driving . . . .

Natalie went on to say in her testimony:

It’s not normal to experience and see the look of true evil when you learn how two innocent women were murdered. . . . It’s not normal to see someone die before your eyes more times than you can actually count.

Knowing what they are witnessing on a daily basis, it’s not surprising at all that many of these heroes are suffering gravely from PTSD. According to a study by Stuart Wilson, Harminder Guliani and Georgi Boichev from the University of Regina and published in the Journal of Community Safety & Well-Being, it is estimated that PTSD prevalence rate for police officers could be as high as 32%; paramedics in Canada, 26%; and firefighters, 17%. In comparison, this rate is about 9% for our general population.

Given the situations they face daily, these high rates are not surprising at all. They suffer tremendously and, if we don’t do our duty, they will continue to suffer in silence.

It has now been more than two years since this bill became law. The government has released a report on what they intend to do to make sure our heroes have the resources they need to deal with PTSD.

Unfortunately, it has almost been a year now, and not much has changed since that report. The inequalities in resources available to help first responders across our country persist. We would think the well-being of the very people who dedicate their lives to keep us safe would be our top priority, especially now during a pandemic when we are calling upon them to face even more stress on a daily basis.

CBC News has reported that Winnipeg firefighters and paramedics only get an annual maximum of $350 for psychological appointments under their employee benefits. This amount would not even cover two full sessions with a psychologist, since the recommended rate in 2020 in Canada for psychologists is $195 for a 50-minute session. Needless to say, this kind of compensation is simply not enough. In comparison, the Saskatchewan Health Authority says that their paramedics can receive up to $2,000 per year for the same kind of appointments. In Toronto, that amount can go up to $3,500 annually.

The same problem is seen for firefighters. A firefighter in Regina will qualify for $500 annually. If the same firefighter were to live in Calgary, that amount would be $1,000. If he or she were in Halifax, it would be $1,500. Again, if that person were in Toronto, it would be $3,500.

This is an unacceptable situation, colleagues. People deserve the same treatment no matter their location in Canada. They are all doing similar jobs and witnessing similar traumatic events. They should all receive matching support.

This lack of resources is leading to an epidemic of suicides in our first responders ranks. Josh Klassen, a second generation firefighter who left his job in 2020 after serving his community in Winnipeg, realized something very disturbing. He said that during his time as a firefighter:

. . . there had been more people I knew die by suicide than die in active-fire ground operations.

These deaths could have been prevented. These people should have had access to the same resources that are available in Toronto, Halifax and Calgary. The fact that they were serving in Winnipeg did not make their lives any less valuable. Our heroes have suffered enough. They gave everything they could to keep us safe. The best thing we can do is to take care of them and make sure that every single one of them is treated with respect.

Honourable colleagues, the government needs to be accountable for making sure that this situation does not continue. That was the whole point of this bill, which was passed in both chambers with the unanimous support of all political parties. The government is bound by law to address these deficiencies and inequalities.

As mentioned, it has been more than two years since the legislation received Royal Assent. It has been almost a year since the report has been published, and yet, colleagues, the situation clearly remains unsatisfactory. So has the government satisfied its obligations under the law? If so, why isn’t it working? Does it require more time for the system to catch up or is there more that we can be doing and should be doing to help people who are supposed to be there to help us? These are questions that we have the power and resources and, quite frankly, colleagues, the obligation to answer.

That is why I ask that the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology be authorized to examine and report on the implementation and success of the federal framework on post-traumatic stress disorder by the Government of Canada as it relates to the four identified priorities with a focus on data collection — that is to improve tracking of the rate of PTSD amongst first responders and its associated economic and social costs.

Colleagues, just as you supported the initial legislation — unanimously, I might add — dealing with this very important and very urgent matter, I hope you will support this motion. I believe we owe it to the men and women from whom we ask so much; the men and women who ask for so little in return. Honourable colleagues, in a show of solidarity in both houses a couple of years ago, we passed this motion. It’s incumbent upon us as parliamentarians to do the follow-up right now to find out where the bottleneck is. At the end of the day, in the middle of a pandemic as we’re facing right now, there is no greater need for our first responders than the needs they currently have.

I urge honourable colleagues to support this motion, to get to work as quickly as possible and get to the bottom of some of the discrepancies we’re facing with PTSD and that many of our first responders are suffering from. Thank you.

What the bill was calling upon the government to do was to have a national conference. They had a national conference. They reported back approximately a year ago, but since then some of the targets on creating a national framework clearly haven’t been met. that’s why I’m coming back a year later and asking what the holdup was. We had the conference. All stakeholders were invited to it. The ministry obviously spearheaded it. So at the end of the day, especially given the pandemic right now, you would have thought that they would have been on this as quickly as possible.

I’m so glad you talked about firefighters. This is such a vitally important topic. My dad was a volunteer firefighter. Not only was he not paid to be a firefighter, but there were no benefits at all for him. I think most of Canada is served by rural volunteer firefighters who have no benefits at all. What you’re proposing is vitally important.

I wonder what you think about including the mental health of health care workers and doctors in our COVID oversight study on lessons learned, the kinds of benefits they have and whether they are adequate. Twitter is flooded right now with nurses talking about being scared to death to go to work, saying “I don’t want to die because I’m going to work.” I think this is so important. I wonder what your thoughts are on that.

We had that debate when the bill was on the floor of the Senate the first go around. At the time, the government was very adamant that they were not willing to accept amendments to include social workers, nurses and others. We didn’t make the amendment to the bill, but we added all the additional possibilities as broadly as we could in the preamble to the bill.

Again, my understanding is that at the conference they had, they had invited people outside of the realm of first responders, which were police, paramedics, firefighters and so on and so forth. So my understanding is that the conference itself was in all-encompassing, as much as possible. We added as many professions as we could in the preamble. I think our committee can easily, in the review process, expand it as broadly or as narrowly as our Social Committee would like it to be.