Jane Groenewegen

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order again today. I’d like to ask, what is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I read someplace recently that governments need a department of common sense, and occasionally I have reason to believe that may be a good idea.

Mr. Speaker, have you ever gone looking for a cardboard box at a store? You know, our government has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement a policy so that we don’t end up with plastic bags on our landscape and in our landfills because they do not break down. But at the same time they want retailers to charge 25 cents for a plastic bag to discourage the use of plastic bags and to encourage the use of a reusable bag...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Yes, that’s what they say. Give kids a playroom full of toys and give them a pile of cardboard boxes and which are they going to go for?

You can use it to confine your new litter of puppies or kittens in a cardboard box. You can use it as kindling. You can start your fireplace in your house. You can start your fire at the beach or out on the land with cardboard. You can fold in the flaps and keep things cold or keep things warm in them. But our government has never said anything to retailers who crush, bundle the energy and the material that it takes to make a cardboard box. Yet, I tell you, a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I allude in my statement to the fact that we cannot have resources on the ground everywhere all the time to respond to some of the needs of people who have either had treatment or are waiting to go to treatment that are back in our communities and needing some kind of support.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if any consideration or research has ever gone into the idea of supporting or funding local groups. That could be people who are in recovery, people who have had...

Thank you, Mr. Moses. More of a comment there, I didn’t hear a question.

Administrative and support services, grants, contributions and transfers, total contributions, $43.887 million.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today we’re going to do a little bit of a theme day on mental illness. When I think of mental illness, I think of anxiety, depression, bipolar, schizophrenia and addictions.

Some come and go, some are lifelong, some will respond well to medication and some others not so well. Some result from a hereditary predisposition and some are less likely to be hereditary, but all mental illness deserves the same response as any other physical illness. To that end, I think our resources through the Department of Health and Social Services and this government are stretched very...

Thank you. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. For clarification, Mr. Dolynny.