Ontario Hansard - 21-March2007

Ms. Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton): It's hard to follow that, but tomorrow is budget day in Ontario, and as the official opposition critic for children and youth, I'm hoping there will finally be good news in this budget for children's mental health issues. For far too long, children's mental health issues have been ignored in this province. Of particular concern: Children's mental health has been the subject of systemic underfunding and, of course, stigma.

The children's mental health community is doing what they can on limited resources. In this Legislature, the official opposition has raised the $3 million the McGuinty Liberals are cutting from health care and children's mental health in Durham region. I am told that over 300 people went out to protest that cut last night-and the ongoing crisis, of course, in military communities right across this province, where the minister herself is not helping kids in crisis on those military bases.

The federal government gets this. They know that children's mental health in Ontario needs an immediate budget increase. I'm calling on the McGuinty government to give $40 million in this budget so we can spend more money on serving kids, on prevention and intervention, and have more stable and long-term funding. As I said, the federal government gets it. That's why they have developed a national commission to address children's mental health right across this country, with $10 million over the first two years and $15 million each year after that. About one in six children across Canada suffers from mental illness. If undetected and untreated early, it can develop into a chronic problem.

Today, I call on the members opposite, the McGuinty Liberal government, to do the right thing: Follow the lead of the federal government and-