Early this year, local mental health advocate Noah Irvine emailed all 338 MPs across the country asking for the federal government to take leadership in Canada’s mental health and addiction crisis, something he has been doing for nearly five years.
His request to the federal government was to create a Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions. Responses to the letters were few and far between and they all echoed the same response: It can’t be done.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new ministerial post in his cabinet to deliver on his election promises on mental health, a Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions.
Irvine, 21, said the sudden news of the new cabinet left him shocked.
“I've been asking for something like this for four and a half, five years. And I was told repeatedly this wasn't going to happen. So if it works, great, but my fear is that it may not be completely sincere. That's just my initial take on it. I mean, I'll give the minister credit where credit is due I mean, she just started her job today,” said Irvine, a third-year political science student at the University of Guelph.
“Any conversation I've ever had with Lloyd or other members of Parliament more broadly has always been ‘We can’t do it, we can’t do it and I've always been a proponent of if you've got the will to do it. You can do it.”
He said the federal government has the tools and ability to create substantive policy in the realm of mental health care but he has always been told they can’t.
“Now it has been proven by the Prime Minister and his cabinet decision that it can be if they so choose to do it. So it's incredibly interesting. It's incredibly surprising as well,” said Irvine who lost both his parents to mental health crises at a young age.
Irvine said up until two months ago, he had senior members of parliament writing to him saying a ministry of mental health and addictions is unnecessary, which makes this announcement a complete shock and a significant "about-face."
“I think it's pretty early to give them a round of applause on this,” said Irvine.
“This system nationally has been broken for many decades, and it's going to take a long time to fix whether or not this government is committed to fixing it or is their commitment one of face value that ‘Look what we did, We create a new ministry.’ Will the ministry actually be able to radically change the tone of the system in this country? I'm not totally certain because of how broken the system really is at this point.”
Irvine said he never heard back from the federal government, However, he said Minister of Veterans Affairs Lawrence McCauley was interested in the idea of a secretariat, which he had touted for a long time.
The new minister position has been taken on by Toronto MP Carolyn Bennett, who recently served as Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations.
Irvine said he finds it interesting that she was given the service file of the Indigenous portfolio yet never wrote back to him.
“The federal government has direct oversight in the mental health in that portfolio, and she never wrote. So it's interesting that she's been appointed to a ministry that I have a great interest in and has never written me back in the last five years,” said Irvine.
He said his primary motivation behind his mental health advocacy work is to make sure that no 15-year-old in this country ever loses their parents to something that could have been prevented.
“I stand by that, to this day. I think that the fact that I have lost both my parents shouldn't have happened. It did, but it shouldn't have and I've always been committed to making sure it doesn't happen to another child,” said Irvine.
“I think the biggest thing that I can ever get is actually fixing the system. We have a lot of work until that goal is realized. We have a multi-long decade process to getting that done. I have issues with the provincial and federal ways of leadership and oversight on this. I think there's a lot more work to be done. I think the ministry if it works is a good starting point. But I will withhold judgment on the minister's handling of this for quite some time. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and hope this works.”
